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Pr.RMiSSION OF THE AMERICAN ART ASSOCIATION 




COURT OF JUvSTICE.-BY FORTUNY 



WITCH WINNIE 

IN SPAIN 


BY 




ELIZABETH Ijyi^HAMPNEY 


Author of “Witch Winnie,” “Witch Winnie’s Mystery,” 
“ Witch Winnie at Versailles,” “ Witch 
Winnie in Holland,” etc. 


WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS 


NEW YORK 

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 


PUBLISHERS 


15024 


Copyright, i8q8, 

BY 

DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY. 



TWo.u. i.ci,ci^£D. 

^-VD 5" 




THE MERSHON COMPANY PRESS, 
RAHWAY. N. J. 


2n£i ' 


1898 . 


CONTENTS, 


CHAPTER 

PAGE 

I. 

Winnie and Tib Are Lost, . 

1 

IL 

Father Tolo, .... 

14 

III. 

The Search, .... 

. 37 

IV. 

A Little Game of Hares and 

Hounds — 


Barcelona, .... 

. . 54 

V. 

In Old Madrid — The Escorial, 

. 82 

VI. 

A Visit to Father Tolo, . 

109 

VII. 

Toledo— Cross Purposes, 

. 126 

VIII. 

Cordova, 

160 

IX. 

Seville, 

. 184 

X. 

Hilario Lopez 

211 

XL 

Cadiz and La Rabida, 

. 224 

XII. 

Granada, 

244 

XIII. 

With the Gypsies, . 

. 262 

XIV. 

Gibraltar and Tangier, 

284 


iii 





INTEODUCTIOK 


The Authoe cannot remember when she 
did not love Spain. From the time when as 
a little girl she was fascinated by George Sor- 
row’s romantic adventures, and from her own 
first introduction to the beautiful Basque 
Pyrenees during the Carlist war in 1875; 

. through later wanderings over the length and 
breadth of that wonderful country, it has 
even been to her a land of enchantment and 
delight. 

Some of her impressions, recorded in The 
Century^ Scribner’’ s Magazine^ The Galaxy^ 
Good Company, Demoresfs, and other maga- 
zines, have been collected in an altered form 
in these pages, but the story is the close of 
the European wanderings of Witch Winnie 
and her friends, brought down to date. The 
great cloud of war rolled up and burst 


vi INTRODUCTION, 

during its writing, and our King’s Daugh- 
ters at its close set the Red Cross above 
the silver one — and loyally offer their 
services to their country; and not to their 
countrymen alone, but to suffering Cubans 
and Spaniards as well ; ready to give the 
cup of cold water wherever anguish calls, 
praying, with Father Tolo, “Agnus Dei 
qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.” 


IMPORTANT DATES. 


Moors entered Spain in 

711 

“ expelled from Spain at tlie 1 

Conquest of Granada j 

Reign of Isabella the Catholic, 

1474-1504 

Charles V., Emperor, 

1505-1558" 

Philip IL, 

1558-1598 

Philip III, 

1598-1621 

Philip IV., 

1621-1665 

Velasquez born 1599, died 

1660 

Murillo “ 1616, “ 

1682 


yii 




WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


CHAPTER I. 

WINNIE AND TIB ARE LOST. 

“ To want, and still to have not; 

To seek, and still to find not; 

To wait for one who comes not. 

Are three things to die of.” 

up, Mother, here we 
last ; and how glad 
the little girl will be 
to see you ! ” 

The speaker was a 
hearty elderly man, 
and Mother” a deli- 
cate little woman, 
wearied with travel, 
dazed and stunned by 
novel sights and con- 
fusing sounds, but with 
an expectant, eager look 
in her eyes, and a quiver about the refined 




2 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

and sensitive moutli which told of suppressed 
excitement. 

They had just arrived in the railroad sta- 
tion at Venice ; and as they walked to the 
quay and saw (instead of the cabs and 
omnibuses which usually surround the rail- 
way terminus) strange gondolas swarming 
up to the landing, a realization of un- 
familiar and incongruous surroundings came 
upon them with more force than at any 
time during their journey. 

“ I almost wish we had written the girls of 
our coming,” Mrs. Smith said doubtfully; 
“ I don’t like surprises myself, and it would 
have been so pleasant to have them meet 
us here. You haven’t forgotten the address, 
have you. Father — the Palazzo Zanelli ? ” 
No, Mother ; and if I had I think I could 
tell the place from Tib’s descriptions. She 
writes a very good letter. How natural all 
this seems ! You needn’t tell me that it is 
the Grand Canal : I recognized it at once. 
Now, Mother, look sharp ; I believe we are 
coming to it. Here, skipper, — I mean con- 
ductor, — you are going by the place ! What ! 
that’s the Vendramini Palace ! Well, I 
picked out ik palace anyway. I came pretty 


WINNIE AND TIB ARE LOST. 3 

near, if I didn’t guess exactly. You don’t 
mean to say that all the houses on the Gi'and 
Canal are palaces ! Not those little, ordi- 
nary-looking houses : why they are no larger 
than chicken coops, and as out of repair 
as a longshore warehouse ! What ! — this the 
Palazzo Zanelli ! Our little girl must have 
had on pretty powerful spectacles when she 
wrote about it ; and Captain Snyder, too — 
how he used to love to brag about his daugh- 
ter that married a count, and lived in a 
palace ! ” 

There was a relieved expression on the 
little woman’s face. It looks very cozy 
and homelike,” she said ; my old friend was 
the same unaffected, affectionate girl, even 
when she returned home on a visit, after she 
became the Countess Zanelli. We knew 
that she had met with reverses, otherwise 
she would not have rented her main floor to 
Professor and Mrs. Waite. She has been 
kind to Tib, and if she is not quite so pros- 
perous as we thought, all the more reason 
why we should be friendly ; but first I must 
see my girl. Oh, it is too good to be true ! ” 
And it was too good. The look of expec- 
tant joy faded out of the patient face as 


4 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


Mrs. Waite (the Adelaide of the Witch 
Winnie coterie) explained that Winnie and 
Tib had left Venice for Genoa a few days 
previously, having suddenly changed their 
plans and decided to return to America. 

^‘She was so homesick to see you both,” 
Adelaide said, “ that she could not wait 
to receive an answer to the letter she 
wrote telling you she was going. You 
never received it, for you had left home 
when it arrived. You will understand, 
Mrs. Smith, just why she could not wait 
when that longing to have her mother’s 
arms around her came upon her.” 

Yes, Mrs. Smith understood. It was this 
longing to clasp their child which had sud- 
denly induced the two parents to cross the 
Atlantic, and which had sustained them 
during the long voyage. The shock of 
the disappointment was too great. The 
rose-leaf flush of excitement changed to a 
sudden pallor. 

“ There, there, little woman ! Why, 

Mother ” for Mrs. Smith had fainted in 

her husband’s arms. 

It was only a temporary weakness. She 
presently revived, and, lying on the divan 


WINNIE AND TIB ARE LOST 


5 


in the corner of Professor Waite’s studio, 
listened to Adelaide’s explanation of the 
circumstances which had led to the girls’ 
sudden leavetaking. 

“ I knew that Tib must be in some trouble 
when you said she wanted me so much,” 
Mrs. Smith said. Why, I knew it before. 
I felt it while it was happening, away across 
the ocean. It was that made me so heart- 
hungry for my girl. I could bear the 
separation as long as I knew that it was for 
her good, that she was well and hajipy, 
progressing in her art, gaining skill in 
what is to be her life-work. People would 
say to me, ^ Don’t you feel very unhappy to 
have your daughter so far away ? ’ and I 
would reply, ^Yes; but I would be still more 
miserable if she could not be there.’ Just 
as long as her letters were enthusiastic and 
ambitious, father and I lived in her joys and 
hopes. But when their tone changed, then 
we couldn’t stand it another minute — and 
here we are.” 

So, you say, it was all because this young 
Count Zanelli fell in love with our little 
girl?” asked Mr. Smith; ^^and his mother 
did not approve of the match. I don’t 


6 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


think we want to see her, now that we know 
that. I wouldn’t have thought it of Captain 
Snyder’s daughter, and your old friend. 
Mother. Before the captain took her off on 
that voyage with him, and left her over here 
to study music, and you and she used to go 
to singing-school together, she used to be 
glad enough to have me see her home, 
though that was only when you wouldn’t let 
me have the privilege. Mother. She was a 
better singer than you, but she wasn’t half 
so pretty. I remember, when she came 
home after her marriage, anyone seeing 
you together would have thought you 
were the Countess. And to think that 
because she has a title, and an old bar- 
racks of a palace, she should not think our 
daughter ” 

“ There, Father, never mind; but listen to 
what Adelaide is saying. It was not out of 
unkindness, it seems, that she was unwilling 
that her son should marry Tib.” 

don’t care what was the reason. She 
need have no fears ; I have something to say 
about it too ” 

^^Sh! Father; someone is coming in. It 
is the Countess Zanelli ! Say nothing to her 


WINNIE AND TIB ARE LOST. 1 

until you have heard what Adelaide was 
telling me.” 

But Tib’s father, furious at the fancied 
slight to his daughter and to himself, could 
not wait ; and when the Contessa came for- 
ward, with a smile and a courteous greeting, 
he disregarded her extended hand, and 
asked abruptly : 

“Maria Snyder, is it true that your son 
wished to marry my daughter ? ” 

“ It is an honor to which he still aspires, 
Mr. Smith.” 

It seemed to the angry man that the 
Countess was speaking sarcastically, and he 
poured forth such an indignant and con- 
temptuous response, tp the effect that noth- 
ing could now induce him to give his 
consent to such a connection, that the 
Countess haughtily withdrew, disregarding 
Mrs. Smith’s pleading hand upon her arm 
and Adelaide’s supplication to be allowed to 
explain. 

“I think I have made it plain enough,” 
Mr. Smith remarked, with a nod of his head 
as the door closed behind her; “and now. 
Mother, that matter is ended. I don’t want 
to hear of this young man again, and I 


8 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

specially, forbid your going to bis mother 
and trying to smooth over what I have said. 
It was what I meant^ so let it stand. What 
I want to know now is, whether there is any 
hope of overtaking the girls at Genoa before 
they sail.” 

Professor Waite brought out railroad time- 
tables and schedules of the sailing of the 
different steamers. “ They hoped to take the 
Aller^'' he said, but if they were too late for 
it, or could not secure such staterooms as they 
wished, they may be waiting for the Fulda — 
in which case there is a chance that you 
will overtake them if you take the night 
train.” 

It seems such a pity,” Adelaide protested, 
“for you to leave Venice without seeing 
something of the city ; and Mrs. Smith cer- 
tainly ought to rest.” 

Mr, Smith took out his watch. “There 
are six hours before we can leave. If the 
Professor will take me around, I can see a 
good deal in that time ; and perhaps mother 
will go out with you after she has had a nap. 
I’ve made a note of several of Tib’s favorite 
places that I would like to tell the little 
girl we had seen. No, Mother — you are not 


WINNIE AND TIB ARE LOST. 


9 


to come with us, or with Mrs. Waite, until 
you have rested for an hour.” 

Mrs. Smith lay down obediently, and 
Adelaide flew away to order luncheon, but 
when she peeped in again to see if her guest 
was asleep the little woman ” beckoned to 
her and begged to hear why it was that the 
Countess, who seemed to like Tib, had 
objected to her son’s attachment. 

It was because they both believed that 
there was insanity in the Zanelli family. 
Both mother and son had rested under this 
horrible dread for years, and when Count 
Angelo Zanelli felt himself drawn to youi* 
daughter, in a fine spirit of renunciation he 
went away to India with Dr. Van Silver. 
When the girls learned, in some way, that the 
Countess had planned his going in order to 
prevent the engagement, your daughter in- 
sisted on leaving for home at once. It was 
such a hasty, unfortunate decision, for neither 
Winnie’s father nor you expected them to 
conclude their European tour so abruptly. 
Winnie, too, w^as very fond of Fortuny’s 
paintings, and longed to see Spain, with 
which they had made her familiar. 

“ And they had scarcely gone before Count 


10 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

Angelo and Dr. V an Silver returned ; and in 
a most remarkable way the mystery in the 
history of the Zanellis was explained, and 
it was proved that there had never been a 
trace of insanity in the family. Then you 
should have seen the Countess. She was as 
anxious for her son to find Tib as she had 
been to separate them; and only yesterday 
the Count and Dr. Van Silver left for Genoa 
in the hope of overtaking the girls.” 

Then we may meet them when we arrive. 
How unfortunate that father w^as so quick, 
and had not listened to all this before he 
spoke so rudely to the Countess ! ” 

“ Yes, it is a pity ; but I will try to get her 
to see you now ; and when you tell her that 
Mr. Smith did not understand the circum- 
stances, she will accept an apology from him.” 

Father apologize! Oh, never! He is 
Just so set in his way. He adores Tib, and 
now that he has got it into his bead that the 
Countess has been unkind to her, it will take 
more than a simple explanation to wipe out 
that impression. I will wait until he has 
cooled down, and will tell him Just how it all 
came about, but he will never take back a 
word he has said, and I dread to think that 


WINNIE AND TIB ARE LOST. 11 

there is any possibility of his meeting that 
young man. When father gets as red in the 
face as he did this morning, it takes more 
than twenty-four hours for him to see any- 
thing normally. He’ll have to sleep on it 
first ; and there is little chance of our getting 
a good night’s rest on the way to Genoa. 
No ; after the peremptory way in which he 
ordered me not to call on the Countess, I 
wouldn’t like to do it. Not that I recognize 
that he had any right to order his wife 
around as if she were a little bound girl or a 
hired man, or that he will feel that he had 
when he comes to himself, but it’s better to 
humor him now. He seemed to know by 
intiution that the first thing I should want to 
do as soon as he had left the house would be 
to run up to Maria — I mean to the Countess 
— and smooth over things ; and he would 
know the instant he set eyes on me whether 
I had done it. When people have been 
married as long as we have they know things 
without talking. And he will be all the 
more ashamed of his tantrum, and willing to 
listen to reason, if I don’t set myself against 
him. Do what you can to excuse him to 
Maria — I mean to the Countess. She will 


12 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

remember tbat he always was hot-tempered. 
She wasn’t any too responsive either, just 
now, when she shook my hand off her arm. 
She will remember by and by that I put it 
there, for I like what you say about this 
young man, and hope it’s going to turn out 
all right. If he finds that Winnie and Tib 
have gone to America, do you suppose he 
will follow them?” 

To the ends of the earth,” Adelaide 
replied confidently. 

Mrs. Smith smiled. ‘‘ I like him the better 
for it. Father would have followed me so 
in the old days. He did follow me once 
clear to Skowdiegan, when I ran away to my 
aunt’s to get rid of him. You never saw a 
man so determined ; and yet here he is 
angry with this inoffensive young man for 
liking Tib : for his anger isn’t only because he 
thought Maria — I mean the Countess — didn’t 
like her. He always gets into a passion if 
anyone admires his daughter. Now, I am 
rather pleased by it ; and my heart warms to 
the young man in a motherly way, and I say 
to myself, ‘ What good taste you have ! ’ But 
father — he ahvays acts just this way, as if he 
wanted to d,rown them.” 


WINNIE AND TIB ARE LOST 


13 


An hour later, when Mr. Smith bustled in, 
he found his wife sleeping peacefully ; and, 
assured by that mysterious magnetism to 
which she had alluded that she had not left 
the divan during his absence, he was much 
placated, and after lunching amicably he 
took her away for a gondola trip before train 
time. People w^ho only knew Mr. Smith 
superficially said that he was as autocratic 
as the Czar and as obstinate as a pig. But 
while this was true, he himself had no idea 
of it. He loved his wife and daughter, and 
would have been indignant if anyone had 
hinted that his affection was selfish or that 
he was tyrannous to them and nari*ow and 
opinionated in his judgment of others. His 
love was genuine; and, realizing that, the 
“little woman ” had patiently endured much, 
with this reward, that though father made a 
great show of maintaining his authority, — and 
it was unquestioningly submitted to in all 
matters whatsoever, — he had been known 
most mysteriously to change his opinions; 
and Mrs. Smith nearly always obtained in the 
end the things upon which she set her heart. 


CHAPTER II. 

FATHEE TOLO. 

Whereas my fancy rather took 
The way that leads to town, 

Thou didst betray me to a lingering book, 

And wrap me in a gown. 

—George Herbert. 

OT until they were well 
on their way to Genoa 
did either Winnie or 
Tib notice among their 
traveling companions a 
black-robed priest, whom 
they had seen several 
times in Venice. He 
had appeared rather 
mysteriously at one of 
Mrs. Waite’s receptions, 
no one having invited 
him, but he was so urbane, such a charming 
story-teller and still more agreeable a listener, 
that he was cordially urged to come again, 
14 




FATHER TOLO. 


16 


and he not infrequently glided in. He was 
a Spanish priest, and his name was Barto- 
lomeo ; that was all they knew of him. 
Children called him Father Tolo, and grown 
people very quickly caught the infection. 

Tib had been napping, and Winnie gazing 
abstractedly out of the car window, when, on 
seeing him, she exclaimed : Why, Father 
Tolo, is that you ? W here did you come 
from ? ” 

From Venice,” he replied; and I am going 
back to Spain, to my home in the Basque 
Pyrenees.” 

“But when did you enter the car? You 
were not here when we took our seats. You 
simply appeared in the same mysterious way 
that you always did at Venice. Let me see, 
when was it that we saw you last ? Oh ! at 
that reception when Don Carlos happened to 
be in the city and was Adelaide’s guest of 
honor. I remember you said you had met him 
before, which is not strange, since you are 
both Spaniards; and he seemed very glad 
that you happened in.” 

“Yes,” Father Tolo replied, with just the 
slightest emphasis, “ it was a very fortunate 
happen all around.” 


16 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

Indeed ! Had you been wantinsf to see 
him?” 

Surely ” 

Then why did you not call upon him ; his 
residence is well known.” 

Because all who frequent his society are 
marked men : Don Carlos is continually 
watched by spies. Had I called upon him, 
my visit would have been telegraphed to 
Madrid, with the information that I am con- 
cerned in a plot to overturn the present 
government — a calumny manifestly absurd, 
but inconvenient for me, and cruelly unjust 
to the innocent members of my parish, who 
are all simple mountaineers.” 

“But the Basque mountaineers are Don 
Carlos’ most loyal subjects, are they not ? ” 
Winnie asked daringly. 

“ True, my dear young lady ; but you may 
as well argue that because I have been in 
Cuba, and have friends there, I am an insur- 
gent.” 

“ You have been a great traveler,” said 
Tib. “Do tell us about your experiences. 
We are on our way home to America now, 
and will have no opportunity, as we have no 
desire, to turn informers to the Spanish 


FATHER TOLO. 


11 


Government. Is it true that the Cubans 
are oppressed by the Spaniards?” 

^^Yes, it is true,” Father Tolo replied 
gloomily. “It is the shame of Spain that 
though she is brave she is also cruel. But 
not all of us. Bead the history of our great 
Cardinal Xinienes and of Las Casas, and the 
early Spanish missionaries, and you will ac- 
knowledge that we have had many noble men. 

“ Ah ! you Protestant Americans do not do 
us justice. You think only of the Inquisi- 
tion, only of King Philip’s cruelties — not of 
his virtues. You forget all you owe to 
Spain : that Columbus would never have dis- 
covered your country, that it would have re- 
mained a wilderness of savages but for Queen 
Isabella. What do you not owe to our long 
list of brilliant explorers? What to our 
patient and zealous missionaries? Do you 
realize that the Franciscan Fathers had con- 
verted the Indians of New Mexico to Chris- 
tianity before your first settlement in New 
England ? ” 

“ No,” Winnie replied frankly ; “ I have 
always supposed vaguely that American 
Christianity and civilization began with the 
Pilgrims.” 


18 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

Father Tolo laughed softly. “What dif- 
ferent standpoints we have ! ” he said. “ Now, 
I have often thoilght what a beautiful thing it 
would have been for American civilization, 
if, instead of the Pilgrims landing on Ply- 
mouth Eock — Plymouth Rock could only 
have landed on them ! ” 

The girls laughed, for there was no malice 
in the old man’s sally ; and Tib asked him 
what was his especial grudge against the 
Puritans. “Because they insisted that all 
the pleasant things of this world are servitors 
of Satan instead of making them handmaids 
of religion. For instance, they looked with 
horror on gaming ; and when I was in Cuba I 
heard a story of an early missionary priest 
who had great success among the Indians in 
teaching them the dogmas of our holy reli- 
gion by means of a pack of cards.” 

“ What do you mean, Father Tolo ? ” 

“I did not know but you might have 
heard the story, for though the priest was a 
Spaniard, it all happened in your country, or 
what is your country now. It was many 
years ago, while Miles Standish and your 
Puritan ancestors were killing the Indians in 
New England, that certain ‘Friers of St. 


FATHER TOLO. 


19 


Francis,’ as the old chronicle tells, * moved by 
a desire to save souls, craved license of the 
Vice Roy of Nueva Espafia to go to the 
towns of the Indians to learn their language, 
to baptize them, and to preach the holy Gos- 
pel to them.’ Father Acacio was one of 
these friars — a devoted man, whether the 
story which I am going to tell you is true or 
not. I do not vouch for it. Ido not approve 
of his stratagem. It may be all a base fabri- 
cation, but, having had to do with very 
stupid catechumens, I can understand how it 
might have happened. Father Acacio, then, 
had been assigned the very small chapel and 
the very large parish of Santa Cruz, among 
the Pueblo Indians; but, after laboring for 
three years, he could count his converts on 
the fingers of one hand — and of these only 
little Candelaria, the chief’s daughter, could 
answer a question in the catechism. 

One day, to complete his mortification, a 
runner brought him a letter from the Bishop 
of Santa Fe, saying that he was about to start 
on a tour of the churches, confirming postu- 
lants, catechising and baptizing converts. 
The Bishop would be accompanied in this 
tour by his excellency the Governor, who 


20 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

was eager to see what progress had been 
made in Christianizing his Indian subjects. 
With this letter came a brief confidential one 
from the Governor. 

“ He wrote that the good Bishop, sainted 
be his name, was growing old and feeble, and 
was hardly competent for the place he occu- 
pied. The Governor had advised his choos- 
ing as a colleague the most successful of the 
missionaries in the surrounding pueblos, and 
it was the friendly intention of this letter to 
advise Father Acacio of the chances before 
him. The Governor hinted at the probable 
succession of the colleague to the bishopric, 
and recalled their old friendship when stu- 
dents at Salamanca. ‘ Ah ! my Acacio,’ he 
wrote, ^ what rare games at cards we have 
had ! There is no one in Santa Fe who has 
your skill. If I could but play with you once 
an evening it would give new zest to life. 
Display now the astuteness for which you were 
so remarkable as a youth, and we shall enjoy 
many a quiet game together when you occupy 
the highest clerical seat in New Spain.’ 

A sunny smile crept around the corners 
of Padre Acacio’s mouth at this reference to 
their student friendship. ^ I was the brighter 


FATHER TOLO. 


21 


then,’ he said to himself. ^ Ah ! how many 
times I have beaten him at ombre behind the 
Capilla San Bartolome ! That was before I 
had taken orders, and those were unprofitable 
but blessed days. Father Acacio’s hand 
sought the folds of his robe and brought 
from an inner pocket, not a breviary, but a 
well-thumbed pack of cards. He shuffled 
them in silence ; and, seating himself in a 
shady angle under a heliotrope ten feet high, 
he dealt himself a good hand. Then he re- 
placed the pack with a sigh and passed into 
the church, remembering, as the bell pealed 
out, that he had set aside this morning for in- 
structing his people in the catechism, and had 
made an especially eloquent appeal to all pres- 
ent on Sunda}^, and had even sent the altar 
boys through the pueblo with the announce- 
ment that indulgences w^ould be granted to 
those who came. The cavernous mud church 
was quite empty as he entered, and his heart 
sank within him as he was convinced that 
even pretty Candelaria had deserted him. 
There was nothing to do but wait. He sat 
down in the rude confessional and, to pass 
away the time, took out his cards again and 
began a game of solitaire. 


22 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


“ Presently the bell ceased ringing, and he 
heard footsteps in the organ-loft (so called 
though it boasted no organ) — light, skipping 
footsteps not to be mistaken for the halting 
gait of old Isidor the bell-ringer. Father 
Acacio had hardly time to hustle his cards 
into the sleeve of his gown when Candelaria 
was at his side. 

“ ^ Why, child, is it you who have rung the 
bell ? ’ he asked. ‘ Where is Isidor ? ’ 

‘ Where everyone else is,’ replied the girl : 
‘ at the ghost gamble.’ 

“ ^ The ghost gamble ! What, pray, is that ? ’ 
^ When a man dies his property is arranged 
in bundles ; his nearest relative takes the part 
of the ghost, and all the others take their turn 
in playing against him with marked plum 
stones for the bundles.’ 

“ ^ Is it a good game ? ’ Father Acacio asked 
absentmindedly. ^ How do you. play it ? ’ 

“ ^ There are eight plum stones, marked, on 
one side, with the heads of buffaloes, with 
half-moons, and with spots. You rattle them 
in a box and throw them : each combination 
counts differently, but if you have up the two 
moons, a buffalo’s head, three plain ones, and 
two spots, that is best.’ 


FATHER TOLO. 


23 


“ ^ I see,’ said Father Acacio ; ^ it is a good 
game, but this people are most sadly given to 
gambling. They would stake their souls 
with Satan — and win them, too, for they are 
not stupid at play. If they were only half as 
bright in learning the catechism ! Well, there 
is one comfort : all the other missionaries have 
the same material to deal with, and no one of 
them can have such a promising neophyte 
as my Candelaria. Come, my child, recite to 
me the Seven Deadly Sins.’ 

^^Candelaria’s fawn-like eyes assumed a 
look of mischievous pleading. ^ If I do not 
miss any of my seven deadly sins,’ she said, 
‘ nor the six sins against the Holy Ghost, 
my five sorrowful mysteries, my four sins 
crying for vengeance, the three evangelical 
counsels, my two prayers to the Virgin 
Mary, and the one original sin ’ 

Unconsciously, while she spoke, Father 
Acacio was counting on his fingers : ‘ Seven 
— six — five — four — trey — deuce — ace, that 
makes almost a sequence.’ 

Hf I say all those, good Father Acacio,’ 
Candelaria proceeded eagerly, ^ will you 
teach me the little game you were playing 
by yourself just now ? ’ 


24 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

‘ What little game ? ’ Father Acacio 
aske^, almost angrily. 

^ When I was ringing the bell in the organ 
loft/ Candelaria replied humbly, but with 
gentle insistence, ^ I thought at first it was 
your breviary, for there were pictures of the 
saints. Is it not so ? But I saw soon that 
it was a game like ours of plum stones, for 
you mixed them and counted them so. Ah ! 
let me see the little pictures, good Father 
Acacio.’ Mechanically the padre took the 
cards from his sleeve and spread them upon 
his lap, while Candelaria, kneeling, regarded 
them with silent admiration. They were 
not like the cards you use in America, but of 
our Spanish pattern and very ancient. The 
symbols, instead of hearts, spades, diamonds, 
and clubs, were cups, pieces of money, swords, 
and cudgels. Candelaria crossed herself in 
awe before a particularly ugly Queen of 
Swords. ‘ It is the blessed Mother of Dolors, 
is it not ? ’ she asked. ^ And he with the club 
is San Cristofero, and he with the money is 
Judas ? And what do all the little pictures 
signify ? ’ 

^ The cups,’ said the padre, ^ and the 
money stand for the two theologic virtues. 


FATHER TOLO. 


25 


Paitli and Charity ; the swords and clubs for 
the two cardinal virtues, Justice and Forti- 
tude.’ 

So far the father spoke truly, for this is 
the real derivation of these symbols, but 
w^hen Candelaria clapped her hands in glee, 
and exclaimed : ^ I apprehend, I see ! It is a 
little game to teach the catechism, is it not 
so ? ’ then a sudden idea — I will not say 
whether it was inspiration or temptation — 
entered into the brain of the priest, and lie 
replied : ^ Yes, Candelaria, one may learn the 
whole way of blessedness from these little 
pictures. We will call them the Joyful 
Mysteries; and, if you are very diligent, I 
will teach them to you.’ An old Dominican 
jingle, a numerical catechism, came to his 
mind ; and, laying the cards out in regular 
sequence, he had her repeat after him : 

^‘‘Dic mihi quid sit uuus? Unus est 
verus Deus qui in coelis regnat.’ 

“ ^ Duo ? Duae sunt Moysis tabulae.’ 

^ Tres ? Patriarchae tres.’ 

“ ^ Quatuor ? Quatuor Evangelistae.’ 

^ Quinque ? Quinque prudentes virgines.’ 

^ Sex ? Sex hydrae positae in Cana Galilaeae.’ 

“ ^ Septem ? Septem sacramenta.’ 


26 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


“ ^ Octo ? Octo Beatitudines.’ 

“ ‘ Novem ? Angelorum chori.’ 

‘ Decern ? Decern praecepta Decalogi.’ 

This he combined so sl^llfully with the 
Mexican game of monte that in half an hour 
Candelaria was gambling expertly — the 
father staking his money on the five prudent 
virgins and Candelaria on the three patri- 
archs. At the close of the game Candelaria 
said she had never had so enjoyable a lesson, 
and was sure if the good padre would teach 
the catechism in that way, not the children 
alone, but the warriors, the medicine men, 
and the chiefs would flock to the lessons. 
Father Acacio’s heart sang jubilate ; already 
he viewed his triumph from afar. He re- 
tired to his cloister garden, not to gather 
cactus for self-flagellation, but to elaborate 
his ^ little game.’ 

“ A little management was necessary to pre- 
pare the catechumens for their flnal examina- 
tion without betraying the machinery by 
which they had learned their lessons. 

The assistance of the cards had been so 
implicitly relied upon that Father Acacio 
found it impossible to elicit an answer with- 
out exhibiting them. 


FATHER TOLO. 


27 


He at last hit upon the expedient of seat- 
ing the bishop and his suite in front of and 
facing the congregation, and of secreting 
Candelaria in the confessional just behind 
them, whence, like a Jack-in-the-box, she 
thrust out the card or cards suggesting the 
required answer in full view of the Indians 
but unseen by the visitors. Several rehear- 
sals assured Father Acacio that this scheme 
could not fail to be successful. 

^^At last the great day arrived. The 
Bishop — a feeble, tottering old man — leaned 
heavily upon the padre’s arm as he was shown 
the neat garden. He dozed comfortably 
under the giant heliotrope, while the Gover- 
nor told Father Acacio of the ill success of all 
the other missionaries whom they had visited. 
The good Bishop had been scandalized by 
the devices to which they had resoiled to 
gain their converts. At Taos the Indians 
had been permitted to hold their hero 
Montezuma in equal honor with San 
Geronimo. At Laguna the festivals of the 
Saints were celebrated with heathen dances 
and the Zoothestic fetiches were allowed a 
place on the high altar. 

Father Acacio professed himself greatly 


28 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

shocked by such crooked practices, and asked 
whether many of the converts had made 
commendable progress in the catechism. 

^ Alas ! no,’ replied the Bishop, suddenly 
waking up ; ‘ the other priests have with one 
accord relinquished all attempts to teach 
them the dogmas of our holy religion.’ 

Padre Acacio smiled complacently and led 
his guests into the church, already filling fast 
with his flock. He seated his friends, and 
the bombardment of questions and answers 
waged merrily, to the complete stupefaction 
of the Bishop, who could scarcely believe his 
eai-s. The triumphant priest could not for- 
bear occasionally casting a glance over his 
shoulder at his confederate Candelaria, who 
smiled and nodded at him from between the 
red cotton curtains of the confessional. He 
had hinted to her the possibility of his 
removal to a higher sphere of usefulness, and 
the tears had stood in her eyes. ^ Blessed 
Father,’ she had said, Miow I shall miss 
you ! and with whom shall I play the ador- 
able little game ? ’ 

^ Dear child,’ the missionary had replied, 
^ we need'not be separated. If you wish, you 
shall go to Santa Fe with me, and teach the 


FATHER TOLO. 


29 


little game to Indian girls as the superior of 
a convent of holy nuns.’ Father Acacio had 
painted the city of Santa Fe in such glowing 
colors that the girl had expressed her entire 
willingness to follow^ him thither. How 
clever she was ! The padre could hardly 
keep his attention on the catechism for think- 
ing of her, and yet his converts were doing 
him credit beyond his most sanguine expec- 
tations. There were some slight slips, as 
when the head choir-boy, confused by the 
identity in the numbers, when asked for the 
Deadly Sins, gave instead the Seven Sacra- 
ments — Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, 
Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Orders, and 
Matrimony ; and, when asked ^ What, then, 
are the Seven Sacraments?’ replied, ‘Pride, 
Covetousness, Lust, Wrath, Gluttony, Envy, 
and Sloth.’ 

“Old Isidor, being asked ‘For what did 
Judas betray his master?’ fixing his eyes on 
three ten spots displayed by Candelaria, 
replied, ‘ Ten gold pieces, ten cups, and ten 
swords.’ 

“ But, as a general thing, all went swim- 
mingly. 

“ The Governor regarded Father Acacio 


30 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

with admiration, which changed after a time 
to surprise and, finally, to a puzzled doubt 
and downright suspicion. These converts 
were too preternatu rally bright. There 
must be some little trick for suggesting the 
answers which did not appear on the 
surface. He began to notice occasional 
incoherences in some of the glib replies. 
The answer proper to Purgatory might be 
truly given to the question, ^What is the 
sacrament of Matrimony?’ for he had him- 
self found that condition ^ A place of punish- 
ment where souls suffer before they go to 
Heaven ’ (Dona Anastasia was dead now, 
rest her soul !) ; but when Willful Murder, 
Oppression of the Poor, and Defrauding the 
Laborer of his Wages were given instead of 
Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience as the 
three particular virtues of a good friar, he 
felt sure that the catechumens had been 
taught by rote with some mechanical means 
for assisting their memories, rather than with 
any explanation of the meaning of the words 
they uttered. 

^^It was at this point that he followed 
Father Acacio’s frequently returning gaze to 
the confessional, and caught a glimpse of 


FATHER TOLO. 


31 


Candelaria’s pretty face. From this time, to 
the priest’s consternation, the Governor paid 
no attention to the catechism, but watched 
with admiration the padre’s charming acces- 
sory as she made her signals. 

‘‘At last Father Acacio’s little game was 
perfectly clear to him, and he knew not which 
to admire most — the cleverness of the scheme 
or the beauty of the assistant. 

“ Poor Father Acacio ! — his genius and pains 
were not rewarded as he wished, for a little 
while after the episcopal visitation a com- 
mission came to him, stating that ‘ Whereas 
he had shown such greate zeale and good 
success in converting the savages, therefore 
it had been thought best to remove him to a 
more difficult field — even to the town of 
Taos, whose warriors were very ill affected to 
the Spanish government, and were by some 
sayd to be on the verge of insurrection.’ 

“ This paper, which, instead of calling him 
to the capital, banished him still further 
into the wilderness, was signed by the Bishop 
at the advice of the padre’s perfidious friend, 
the Governor. 

“Had he, then, forgotten his expressed 
desire to have a partner at monte with 


32 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


whom to while away the long evenings? 
Not at all ; nor was Candelaria disappointed 
in her desire to see the capital of New 
Spain, Santa Fe, the city of the holy faith. 
The ancient chronicles tell how more than 
one of the early officials ^ took to themselves 
wives of the chieftainesses of that country,’ 
and there was great celebration in the pueblo 
when the governor married little Cande- 
laria. Father Acacio’s successor, a man of 
dull wits, could never understand why it 
was that his flock at first clamored to be 
taught the catechism, and then left the 
church in a body never to re-enter it wffien 
he painstakingly endeavored to explain and 
teach it to them.” 

Father Tolo continued his pleasant stories 
all the way to Genoa, and proved to be a 
most entertaining traveling companion. He 
told them of his experiences in Cuba — a 
short visit, for he had only gone on a tour of 
inspection ; but in the brief time he had 
observed much, and though he was very 
guarded in his remarks, it was evident that 
in many respects the insurgents had his 
sympathies. 

He spoke more freely of his own country 


FATHER TOLO. 


33 


and the beauty of the scenery in the Basque 
Pyrenees. ‘‘ Ah ! that is the land for an 
artist,” he cried with enthusiasm. 
picture on every hand. If ever you go to 
Spain, you must not neglect to visit the 
Pyrenees. So many think that Castile and 
Andalucia are all there is of Spain, whereas 
our northern Spain is more picturesque, our 
northern Spaniards a nobler race, than you 
will find in the South. That they have been 
loyal to the Carlist cause, and have fought 
for it when there was no chance of victory, is 
no shame to them, but rather to their credit.” 

I wish I understood the political situa- 
tion better,” said Tib. “ If I remember 
correctly, the first Don Carlos, whom we hear 
of as a Pretender or claimant, was a brother 
of King Ferdinand YII., who, on his death in 
1840, left the kingdom to his daughter 
Isabella, the mother of King Alfonso, who 
was the father of the present little king. 
Now, as the line was direct, I do not see-what 
claim that Don Carlos or the present one, his 
grandson, can have to the Spanish crown.” 

Because of the Salic law, that no woman 
can rule. On the death of Ferdinand, as he 
had no son, his brother Carlos was the right- 


34 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


fill heir. Ferdinand had no power to leave 
the kingdom to a woman.” 

“ But all of the rest of Spain accepted her 
as queen ; why not the Basques ? ” 

Father Tolo’s eyes kindled. Because of 
owvfue7:os : ancient rights confirmed to us by 
Charles V. — the right to be exempt from 
conscription and from many oppressive taxes. 
The old Don Carlos and the present both 
swore to protect owv fueros, but after the war, 
ended in 1876, in which we had all fought 
unsuccessfully for four years for the Carlist 
cause, then the Spanish Government estab- 
lished the conscription and the taxes — so is it 
an}^ wonder if some of the Basques are not 
only wishing but really working to bring 
Don Carlos back again? Ah ! if he only 
had better advisors and understood more 
clearly the Cuban situation ! It was for that 
I sought him in Venice, to warn him against 
General Weyler, who is as unscrupulous as he 
is cruel, and is endeavoring to gain the con- 
fidence of Don Carlos and win him to his 
policy of cruelty. If only another Ximines 
might arise to counsel him ! Then would we 
all welcome to the throne him whose right it 
is to rule.” 


FATHER TOLO. 


35 


‘‘ Then your visit to Venice really had a 
political reason ? ” 

I did not say so,” Father Tolo replied 
eagerly. scarcely know what I have said : 
I was excited and forgot myself. Take it 
all as the foolish maundering of a doting old 
man. The wisk is in my own heart as I 
have expressed it, but I implicate no one. 
These are nothing but my personal opinions 
— utterly fatuous and futile. Forget them, I 
beseech you ! Above all things, never imagine 
me an — emissary. Our poor Spain is torn 
and distracted within, for, besides these two 
political parties, there are the Eepublicans, 
who triumphed for a time under Castelar. 
He is an idealist who dreams of a United 
States of Europe like yours of America. He 
actually met with Gambetta of France and 
Garibaldi of Italy to discuss the impractical 
scheme. He is a noble man, and the party 
still exists ; the young hotheads are with him. 
Who knows which of the three factions will 
triumph in the end? And as though this, 
with the trouble in our j^rovinces, were not 
enough — there is even talk of war with the 
United States ; but that must not happen.” 

Oh ! that is quite impossible,” Winnie 


36 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


replied cheerfully. “ The people of the 
United States have only the kindliest feel- 
ings for Spaniards. I cannot imagine any- 
thing which could interrupt our friendly 
relations.” 

They parted at Genoa, for Father Tolo 
was going directly home. He lifted his 
hand with a Pax vohiscum ! ” as they drove 
from the station. 

Peace be with you, too. Father Tolo,” 
Winnie replied heartily, and with your 
dear country ! ” 

“ Doesn’t he look like a saint,” she added 
to Tib, as he paces the platform reading his 
breviary ? And, for all that, do you know I 
really believe he is a conspirator ! ” 


CHAPTER III. 


THE SEAECH. 

But trow not that I will tell you all the Towns and 
Cities and Castles that Men shall go by: for then would 
I make too long a Tale.— SiR John Mandeville. 

HAT befell Winnie and Tib in 
Genoa shall be re- 
lated in due time. 
Their stay was a 
very short one ; but 
during that stay 
events occurred 
\vhich entirely 
changed their plans. 
Hardly had they 
left Genoa when Dr. 
Van Silver and An- 
gelo Zanelli arrived, and searched the town, 
without coming upon and trace of the 
fugitives. 

Having become convinced that they had 
taken passage for America, Angelo urged his 
37 



38 ’ WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

friend to return with him to Venice ; but 
Europe had no attractions for Van, with 
Winnie in America; and as there was a small 
coasting steamer bound for Gibraltar in the 
harbor, he determined to take it and to find 
passage for New York at that port. 

In his secret heart he hoped that the girls 
might possibly have stopped at Gibraltar, 
and that, overtaking them there, he would 
have the pleasure of making the homeward 
voyage in their company. 

To those of our readers who have followed 
this series through its previous volumes, Van 
will be no stranger. Winnie and he had 
been betrothed for several years, but while 
their mutual affection and respect had 
deepened, fate had not been kindly in help- 
ing them to set their wedding day for the 
immediate future. Van and Angelo Zanelli 
were not in Venice when the girls had left; 
and Winnie had simply written Van of their 
intention of returning to America without 
giving him all the details. She knew that 
he, too, was soon to return to the United 
States, and hoped soon to welcome him ; but 
neither of the girls imagined that Angelo 
would care to follow them across the ocean^ 


THE SEARCH 


39 


though this was just what he now deter- 
mined to do. 

I wish I could go with you at once,” he 
said to Van, ‘^but I must wait here to ex- 
change letters with my mother. I shall find 
you in New York, so look for me soon after 
your arrival.” 

The next day, after seeing Van otf, the 
Count received a letter from his mother, 
detailing her experience with Mr. Smith, and 
concluding as follows : 

And to think that this furious, and probably 
dangerous, man is going to Genoa, and may fall upon 
you at any moment ! I am consumed with anxiety. 
If you have found our young friends, wait until 
Nellie has had an opportunity to plead your cause 
with her father before you present yourself, for any 
interview with him in his present state of mind 
would be fatal to your hopes. May Providence 
keep you apart for the present ! 

Your deeply distressed 

Mother. 

As Angelo slowly folded this letter, and 
placed it in his pocket, he noticed the arrival 
in the hotel ofiSce of an American and his 
wife, who devoted themselves to as careful 
a study of the hotel register as he had given 
it the day before. 


40 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


“ They are not here, Mother,” said the 
man after prolonged scrutiny ; but I’ll take 
a room, and you would better go up to it 
and rest while I hunt around. See here. 
Signor,” he added, addressing the hotel clerk, 
as soon as his wife had mounted the stairs, 
‘^just tell me how to find some of these 
hotels that Baedeker mentions.” 

But the clerk, not desiring to advertise his 
rivals, pretended not to understand, and 
Angelo Zanelli stepped forward and politely 
explained the situation of each of the hostel- 
ries, carefully marking the way upon the 
map. Mr. Smith was delighted to find 
someone who understood English, and asked 
the Count to inquire for him if he could 
secure the services of an interpreter. No 
such individual being for the moment pro- 
curable, Angelo, who had the morning on his 
hands, offered to go about with him. My 
name is Angelo,” he explained — “Angelo 
Zanelli,” but Mr. Smith, overjoyed at finding 
the help he needed, paid little attention to 
his introduction, and caught only the Christian 
name. 

“ I am more obliged to you than I can ex- 
press, Mr. Angelo,” he replied. “ Foreign 


THE SEARCH. 


41 


languages come pretty difficult when one tries 
to pick them up late in life. You seem to 
be equally at home with Italian and English. 
May I ask whether you are an American 
who has lived long abroad, or an Italian who 
has passed a part of his life in America ? ” 

“ A little of both,” Angelo replied ; my 
father was an Italian, my mother an Ameri- 
can.” 

Hum ! Those international mari-iages are 
getting to be more common than we like 
over in America,” and Mr. Smith scowled in 
a threatening manner. 

And yet they do not always end disas- 
trously,” Angelo ventured. My parents’ 
marriage was an exceptionally happy one.” 

“ Yes, exceptionally^ I dare say ; but it 
stands to reason that there is more rational 
prospect of happiness when two young peo- 
ple have the same tastes and the same ideas, 
the same way of looking at things, and the 
same political and religious opinions. There 
are enough causes of diffierence coming up 
through the most harmonious married life 
wdthout lugging them in at the beginning 
from the ends of the earth. Take the mere 
matter of cooking : I could no more have 


42 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

stood an Italian wife, who persisted in serv- 
ing me with macaroni au gratin instead of 
giving me buckwheat cakes and maple syrup, 
than I could go to a Catholic cathedral 
instead of the Presbyterian church on 
Sunday.” 

But how would it have done to have had 
both buckwheat cakes and macaroni on the 
menu ; and couldn’t your wife and you have 
gone to different churches without quarreling 
over your Sunday dinner ? ” 

No, young man ; in married life there 
must be complete unanimity of opinion, or 
there is no happiness. Mrs. Smith belonged 
to the Friends’ Meeting, but when we were 
married she became a Presbyterian like me, 
and our tastes in the matter of cookery are 
identical. Of course, I didn’t inquire around 
for a young lady who liked buckwheat cakes 
and little deer-foot sausages for breakfast 
every day in the year, but it was a great 
comfort to find after our marriage that such 
was her preference. Why, I not only 
can’t eat macaroni myself, but it makes 
me ill to sit opposite anyone who eats it ! 
No, sir ; complete unanimity is the only safe- 
guard for wedded happiness.” 


THE SEARCH 


43 


It seems to me a little remarkable,” per- 
sisted Angelo, “ that your wife had no indi- 
vidual tastes which you did not share when 
you were first married.” 

“ I didn’t say that. Come to think of it, 
she used to say that sausages and buckwheat 
cakes every morning were a little cloying. 
But to show how perfectly easy it is to have 
unanimity (when both parties are set on it), 
Mrs. Smith as a girl Avas very fond of cup 
custards, but I was brought up on a farm, 
and never could endure eggs in any form — as 
food, I mean. They are very good articles of 
merchandise, and we send crates of them to 
the market ; but, as I was saying, I explained 
to Mrs. Smith that they were harmful for her 
health ; and so, though she makes custards 
when the sewing society meets at our house, 
and sends them around to sick people, I 
never have seen her eat one.” 

“ Don’t you think international differences 
might be compromised in the same way ? ” 
Angelo had the temerity to ask. 

“Never, sir, never!” Mr. Smith replied 
with decision. “ I w^ould no more consent to 
my daughter’s marrying a foreigner than I 
would think of doing such a thing myself. 


44 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


Why, what unanimity could there be ! 
Could you now give up macaroni and eat 
griddle cakes for the sake of any woman 
under heaven ? ” 

^‘Yes, Mr. Smith; if a certain lovely girl 
of whom I am thinking demanded such 
renunciation.” 

Mr. Smith shook his head vigorously. 

Don’t you do it. That’s no way to begin 
married life. You’ll have to keep i*enounc- 
ing all the way through — and a man hasn’t 
the spirit of a mouse that would do that. 
Ah ! here we are. Now, what I want to 
know of the hotel-keeper is whether two 
young ladies, named respectively Miss Wini- 
fred De Witt and Miss Nellie Smith, — that’s 
my daughter’s name, though we call her Tib, 
— have stopped at this house during the past 
week.” 

Angelo Zanelli felt as if the room were 
spinning around him, but he managed to put 
the questions, although they were the same 
which he had asked the day before. And 
so from hotel to hotel they tramped, the land- 
lords sometimes looking at Angelo pityingly, 
as though they fancied that he was losing his 
reason,and again answeringhi's inquiries curtly. 


THE SEARCH. 


45 


Mr. Smith grew profoundly despondent as 
the morning wore on. I am afraid she has 
gone back to America, and I’ve missed her,” 
he said. I hate to tell mother ; I’m afraid 
it will make her sick. She’s stood about all 
she can — poor little woman ! ” 

But Mrs. Smith was braver than her hus- 
band. They found her on their return wait- 
ing for them on the balcony. 

“Tib isn’t in this town, Mother; we’ve 
looked it through and through,” said Mr. 
Smith. “ Mr. Angelo — this gentleman — has 
been so kind as to help me.” 

Mrs. Smith gave a quick, questioning 
glance at Angelo Zanelli. “ Then it is cer- 
tain that the girls have sailed ? ” she asked. 

Angelo did not reply, but Mr. Smith an- 
swered pettishly, “ Of course ; where else can 
they be ? ” 

This was the very question which was agi- 
tating Angelo. He had not told Mr. Smith 
that one of the men who had conversed with 
him so long in Italian that morning was the 
agent for the North German Lloyd Steam- 
ship Company, who had assured him posi- 
tively that no passengers answering to the 
description of the girls had left Genoa on the 


46 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

Alter. Winnie and Tib were not in Genoa, 
and they had not taken passage for America. 
Where, then, were they ? 

Angelo felt that the uncertainty under 
which he was sulfeiing would be harder for 
Mr. and Mrs. Smith to endure than their 
present belief, and he determined to make 
further investigations before communicating 
his own doubts. 

“ Then there is nothing for us to do,” Mrs. 
Smith was saying, ‘‘ but to take the next 
steamer home ourselves. How criss-cross 
everything does happen ! I have Just made 
the discovery from the hotel, register that 
the Eoseveldts were staying in this very 
house, and left only two weeks before we 
arrived.” 

“ I wonder whether Tib saw them ? ” said 
Mr. Smith. 

It is very possible, for they were in 
Genoa at the same time. It would have 
been a comfort to have met Mrs. Roseveldt 
and Milly, even if they had not met the girls 
so recently ; but they have gone, and all the 
hotel people know is that they left by train 
for Marseilles.” 

Angelo listened attentively. “ Were these 


THE SEARCH. 


4V 


Eoseveldts very intimate friends of your 
daughter’s ? ” he asked. 

“Very. Milly Kose veldt was an old school 
friend of both Tib’s and Winnie’s.” 

Light was breaking in upon his mind, and, 
excusing himself, he hastened away to gather 
all the data which he could in regard to the 
Roseveldts. 

“ What a pleasant young man ! ” Mrs. 
Smith remarked to her husband. “ What 
did you say was his name ? ” 

“ Angelo. Think of Michael Angelo and 
you will remember it. Like as not, he is of 
the same family.” 

“How do you think of things. Father? 
Now, that would never have occurred to me.” 

“Women never do put two and two to- 
gether,” remarked Mr. Smith. 

But Mrs. Smith was busied with another 
little sum in mental arithmetic. In studying 
the hotel register, Koseveldt was not the only 
familiar name which she had discovered. 
She had also come across those of Dr. Van 
Silver and Count Angelo Zanelli, and had 
furthermore discovered that while the former 
had departed, Zanelli was still a guest of the 
house. 


48 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

She could see this young Mr. Angelo now, 
talking with the porter, who presently ex- 
huraed a sealed letter from the depths of a 
pocket. Then the conversation grew more 
excited, and a gold coin slipped into the 
porter’s hand. The porter, still objecting, 
was dragged to the hotel register, and the 
address on the letter compared with some 
name recently entered. Then the porter 
relinquished the letter, and the young man 
returned to them almost breathless with 
excitement. 

I have reason to believe,” he said, that 
your daughter did not sail for America as 
she intended, but is with the Koseveldts.” 

“ What makes you think so ? ” 

Angelo repeated the information which 
the agent of the steamship company had 
given him, and, as the faces of his auditors 
grew troubled, added, “ But have no fears ; 
the porter assures me that, whereas the 
Boseveldt party consisted while here of only 
three persons, when they left there were five, 
having heen joined by two young ladies^ 

“ But you haven’t proved that they were 
Winnie and Tib,” Mr. Smith replied, obsti- 
nately refusing to be convinced. 


THE SEARCH. 


49 


“ Not yet,” Angelo admitted; ‘'but I hope 
to do so. On being urged to try to remem- 
ber sonietliing about these young ladies, the 
porter confessed that as they wei*e leaving 
one of them confided to his care a letter 
which she was anxious to have leave upon 
the next steamer for America, which letter 
he had providentially forgotten to mail, and 
here it is.” 

“ But we have no right to open other 
people s letters,” objected Mi*. Smith. 

“ That was what the porter said, but I 
proved to him that it was the same thing for 
the owner to seek the letter as the letter its 
owner. It is addressed to you.” 

Mrs. Smith gave a little shriek of delight. 
“ It is from Tib, and it is for me ! ” 

Angelo withdrew politely, and Mrs. Smith 
read the letter aloud to her husband : 

“ Darling Mother : 

“So very much has happened since I last wrote, that 
I scarce!}^ know wliere to begin. You will be sur- 
prised to learn that circumstances arose in Venice 
which convinced Winnie and me that we had 
remained there long enough. I will tell you all the 
details when I see you. I don’t like to crystallize 
unpleasant things in cold ink ; besides, I feel that I am 
looking at events with too near a focus now. Per- 


50 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


baps they will look differently when I am further 
awa}^ from them. 

“We had fully made up our minds to return to 
America — and I had written 3'ou so; but, fortunately, 
did not mail the letter, as I intended to add more to 
it at Genoa, and then send it by a different steamer 
than the one which we were to take. 

“ But on our arrival here the first person that I met 
was Millie Roseveldt, who, with her parents, will start 
for Spain to-morrow. 

“You know that Winnie and I have always longed 
to visit Spain; and this seemed too good an oppor- 
tunity to be lost, for tlie Roseveldts veiy kindly urged 
our going with them ; and Winnie for once in her life 
put her foot down resolutely, and asserted that I 
might go home alone if I wished — for her part, she 
should take this Spanish tour. We tried to talk it 
over dispassionately; and when we considered that 
our funds were sufficient ; that you did not expect us 
to come back to America for another six months, and 
might think our sudden return an impulsive freak; 
that you had always told us to choose our own 
itinerary ; and, finall}^ when we talked over the won- 
derful paintings by Velasquez and Murillo, which one 
can only see in the Madrid Gallery; and when wo 
further thought of the Mosque at Cordova, and the 
beauties of the Alhambra ; and reflected that this 
might be the only opportunity of our lives for seeing 
these wonders — then it really seemed to be the part 
of wisdom to seize the gift which the gods had 
given us. 

“ I am sure of your approval, but you have no idea 


THE SEARCH. 


51 


how 1 wish that you and daddy were to make this 
beautiful trip witli us. If you could only be trans- 
ported to us in some magical way, for there is no 
time for you to reach us in any ordinary manner 
before the trip would be half over, for we expect to 
sail for home from Gibraltar within two months. 

Please address us in care of & Co., Bankers, at 

Seville ; and I shall hope when we reach there to find 
a long letter awaiting me. 

“ Ever lovingly yours, 

“ Tib.” 

Mr. Smitli gave a long w^liistle. ^^This 
alters the situation,” he said to his wife. 

^‘What shall we do? ” she asked. 

“ The first thing that I shall do,” Mr. 
Smith replied, “ will be to take Mr. Angelo’s 
advice. Had it not been for his kindness 
and level-headedness we would not have 
known what we do now.” 

Mr. Smith joined Angelo, and communi- 
cated the information conveyed by the letter, 
so far as concerned the girls’ plan for travel 
in Spain. 

“You intend, of course, to follow them?” 
asked Angelo. 

“ Certain ! We will go directly to Seville 
and tell the American Consul to let us know 
when they ask for their mail.” 


52 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

But that will be nearly a month hence,” 
Angelo replied ; and you can find them 
before that.” 

How would you go about it ? ” asked 
Mr. Smith. 

“ In this way : Leaving from this point 
they would enter Spain by the northeast, 
and their first stop would naturally be at 
Barcelona. As they have only a month to 
give to the interesting places between that 
point and Seville, they will probably have 
left Barcelona before our arrival. We can 
stop, however, and begin our inquiries there. 
Our next objective point will be Madrid, and 
there I am very sure that we will find them 
domiciled at one of the first-class hotels.” 

Mrs. Smith looked at the young man with 
a keen glance of recognition. It had not 
escaped her notice that he included himself 
in the search party. ‘‘You are going with 
us ? ” she asked. 

“ I am on my way to Spain,” Angelo 
stammered, “ and, if you will permit it, will 
be glad to travel in your company.” 

“ Going to Spain ! ” exclaimed Mr. Smith. 
“ Well, that’s lucky ; and I shall take it very 
kindly of you if you will help me in making 


THE SEARCH. 


53 


inquiries at tlie hotels there as you have here 
to-day.” 

Most gladly,” Angelo replied ; and I 
will begin at once by looking up our train.” 

Mrs. Smith was certain of Angelo’s 
identity, but she said nothing to her husband 
in regard to her suspicions. It would be 
just as well, she argued, to let the disclosure 
come later, after the young man had had 
time to strengthen the good impression 
which he had already created. 

Just before leaving Genoa a letter was 
handed Angelo for Dr. Van Silver. It was 
one which Winnie had written on their 
change of plans. She had sent it to Venice, 
and Adelaide had forwarded it, but it had 
arrived too late to reach Van. Angelo 
readdressed the letter to the American 
Consul at Gibraltar, asking him, in case Dr. 
Van Silver had sailed, to send it to his New 
York address. He also wrote a personal 
note to Van, telling him how he had met the 
Smiths and had learned the plans of the 
two fugitives, and urging him, if possible, to 
delay his return to America and to join them 
at Seville. 


CHAPTER IV. 


A LITTLE GAME OF HAKES AND HOUNDS 

BARCELONA. 


’ Twas evening as they reached the mountain’s brow 
That showed them Barcelona in the vale; 

And long they paused to see that lovely show : 

The sun, low leveled on the city pale; 

Montjuif’s bright brow, its lily standard hung. 

Like rising flame, on heaven ; tiie port’s thick sail — 
Tlie clouds upon the sea of sapphire flung. 

—George Croly. 


lEANTIME the three friends, Tib, 
AVinnie, and Milly, with Milly’s 
father and mother, — Mr. and 
Mrs. Roseveldt, — 
were speeding on 
toward Spain, with 
only a short start of 
their pursuers ; that 
brief interval was 
to result in all sorts 
of mishaps and mis- 
connections, and even 
some exciting contretemjys. 

It will be remembered by those who have 

54 




V-. 

* vV'i 


PERMISSION OF THE AMERICAN ART ASSOCIATION. 

C.AFE OF THK SWALLOWS. -Bv Fortunv. 








GAME OF HARES AND HOUNDS. 55 

read the previous volumes of this series that 
Tib and Winnie had left the Roseveldts in 
Holland, where the misunderstandings be- 
tween Milly and Stacey Fitz Simmons had 
all been cleared away and their engagement 
approved. Stacey had gone to England to 
study naval engineering. Since that summer, 
and while Tib and Winnie had lived through 
the eventful winter and summer at Venice, 
the Rose veldts had traveled in various parts 
of Europe. 

The three friends had many confidences to 
exchange, and chattered away as they whirled 
along toward Barcelona. Fortunately, Mr. 
Roseveldt obligingly slept the greater part of 
the way, and as the only other occupant of 
their compartment did not understand Eng- 
lish, they could give free escape to all 
their long-repressed confessions. Winnie 
and Milly were especially sympathetic, for 
to these two fate had been kind, and had 
given to each that highest of earthly bless- 
ings — a good man’s love. For each of them, 
too, the path of true love had been smoothed, 
until now only a brief waiting time stretched 
between them and the fruition of their hopes. 
For Tib everything had gone sadly awry — a 


56 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

great cloud of raisunderstauding had come 
up between her and Augelo Zanelli. He had 
shown, as she thought, that he did not love 
her ; and she was calling up all the pride of 
which she was capable to help her not to 
throw away her happiness iu mawkish sen- 
timentality and unrequited affection. W ork 
was her great consoler, and she had turned to 
her art with an intense energy which made 
Winnie imagine that her love could never 
have been equal to her ambition. While the 
other girls talked of the Spanish paintings 
which they would see in Madrid — of Velasquez 
and Murillo, especially, among the old masters; 
and of Fortuny, Madrazo, Kico, Pradilla, and 
Zamacois among the moderns — Tib joined in 
the conversation with animation ; but when 
the chat turned to the comparative excellences 
of Van and Stacey, she allowed the two happy 
girls to talk together in subdued tones while 
she acted as a screen by engaging Mrs. Rose- 
veldt in some discussion. 

At Barcelona, their first stop on Spanish 
soil, after seeing all paintings which were on 
exhibition, the three girls accompanied Mr. 
Rose veldt on a walk to the Fort of Mont- 
juich, south of the town, as they had been 


GAME OF HARES AND HOUNDS. 57 

told that from its heights the best view 
of the harbor was to be obtained; and here 
an adventure happened to them very far- 
reaching in its consequences. Mr. Eoseveldt 
sent their cards in to the commandant, 
who detailed an orderly to show them the 
fortress. 

The orderly was a courteous, talkative 
young man, who was delighted at having this 
opportunity to impart information to three 
comely young American ladies. He spoke 
French, and explained how the name had 
been given to the hill because it was the 
Ghetto of the Middle Ages. He showed the 
fortifications, and told the story of their 
capture in 1705 by Lord Peterborough, one 
of the most brilliant feats of modern times, 
and how Espartero had bombarded Barcelona 
from these batteries in 1842 — for the fort 
commanded the city as well as the harbor ; 
and, once taken, the inhabitants were at its 
mercy. 

An elderly whiskerando, who had once 
been a soldier, but was now an agent of the 
police, followed them from point to point, and 
scowled as the orderly pointed out the path 
by which Lord Peterborough’s men scaled the 


58 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


hill and surprised the garrison ; and when lie 
explained how the very guns placed here for 
the defense of Barcelona were turned on the 
city with such terrible effect, the detective 
pushed forward and spoke a few ivarning 
words to the orderly in Spanish. The young 
officer ordered him aside indignantly, and 
offered to conduct the party into the Sola 
de las Armas., or museum of arms and armor. 
Tib, fascinated by the superb view, preferred 
to remain outside, and, sitting in the shelter 
of an angle of the fortifications, began a 
water-color of the view of the harbor. Win- 
nie and Milly announced that they w'ould 
sit with her, but Mr. Bose veldt accepted the 
orderly’s guidance, as he was greatly interested 
in ancient and mediaeval armor. 

While they sat in the pleasant sunshine 
Milly improved the opportunity to read 
AVinnie extracts from Stacey’s last letter. 
He was now in America, but while in Eng- 
land be bad been particularly interested 
in torpedo warfare and in submarine mining. 
He bad attended maneuvers and witnessed 
experiments with submarine boats, having 
bad special advantages for tbis line of study 
extended to bim by the Assistant Director 


GAME OF HARES AND HOUNDS. 


59 


of Torpedoes of the British Admiralty, and 
by a noted naval architect at Chiswick who 
was engaged in the construction of torpedo 
boats for Spain. I have carefully studied 
every detail in these boats,” Stacey wrote, 
and wish I might go out in one of them to 
Cadiz and meet you in Spain — but that is 
not possible.” Stacey was very enthusiastic, 
and proceeded to rehearse the history of the 
part that torpedo warfare had played on the 
Black Sea in the Russo-Turkish War. He 
closed with the announcement that to please 
his father, the old Commodore, he had at last 
decided to enter the United States Navy, and 
w^as daily expecting an appointment in the 
line. 

I would have made this decision long 
ago,” he wrote, “ if I had imagined that there 
was any likelihood of war in our generation, 
but I could not endure a life of inaction at 
the expense of the government.” 

While Milly was reading and Tib sketch- 
ing they had not observed that the whis- 
kered individual had slunk behind the low 
bastion and was listening acutely. He un- 
derstood English, but what he now partly 
overheard he entirely misconstrued. When 


60 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


Milly had fioished reading he leaped the 
bastion and snatched the water-color, remark- 
ing that it was against the rules to make 
drawings of tl:e fortifications. Tib pleaded 
that this was not a drawing of the fortifica- 
tions but from them. No matter,” replied 
the man, all one ” ; and he glowered at the 
innocent sketch, and, suddenly discovering 
the pathway down the hill, indicated by a 
faint line, he crumpled the paper up and 
placed it in his pocket, saying that such 
a drawing would give most important in- 
formation to an attacking party. He then 
demanded that the letter which had just 
been read should be surrendered to him, but 
this Winnie would not allow Milly to do; 
and the orderly and Mr. Roseveldt arriving 
opportunely, the intruder was for the moment 
suppressed. But all enjoyment was taken 
out of the beautiful day. It was the autumn 
of 1897, and the relations between the United 
States and Spain were strained on account of 
the sympathy which existed in our country 
for the Cubans. There was talk, even at 
this time, of war with Spain, and traveling 
Americans were looked upon with coldness 
and sometimes with suspicion. Mr. Bose- 


GAME OF HARES AND HOUNDS. 61 

veldt decided that they might escape possible 
annoyance by immediately continuing their 
journey. 

The girls had told Mr. Koseveldt of Father 
Tolo, and he was greatly interested in this 
singular man. 

Since you have his address,” Mr. Rose- 
veldt said, we will write to the good priest 
of the sudden chauge in your plans. I 
would enjoy a little tour in the Pyrenees 
before the cold weather sets in, and we will 
ask Father Tolo to send us a line to Madrid 
telling us how best to reach his little moun- 
tain village.” 

Just after the Roseveldts, with Tib and 
Winnie, had left Barcelona, Mr. and Mrs. 
Smith and Angelo Zanelli arrived in the 
city, having followed exactly the same route 
from Genoa, journeying through Provence, 
the land of romance, and entering the Penin- 
sula from the northeast. They found traces 
of the girls immediately, for they stopped at 
the same hotel — the Nacional, on the Bambla. 
Angelo was certain that they would over- 
take them at Madrid, and, as there was no 
desirable train until the next day, they occu- 
pied themselves with inspecting the novel 


62 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


sights in this Spanish city, the first which 
Mr. and Mrs. Smith had ever seen. Angelo 
told them of an interesting excursion which 
he had made to the curious convent of Mont- 
serrat on a previous visit. 

The convent is situated on the summit of 
a high and jagged range of mountains, and 
commands a superb view of Catalonia. It 
has a hospidaria, where guests are entertained 
for three days, and by special permission for 
six more. It is chiefly celebrated from the 
fact that Ignatius Loyola watched all night 
in the Chapel of the Virgin before dedicat- 
ing himself to be^ her knight and founding 
the order of the Society of the Jesuits. He 
left his sword upon her altar in token that 
the weapons which he would henceforth 
use were to be spiritual. 

Mrs. Smith was interested in Angelo’s 
description, but, as the excursion would 
require several days, they decided unani- 
mously not to take it, for all three were 
impatient to overtake the fugitives. That 
evening Angelo proposed that they should 
drive out to Pedralves, a picturesque holiday 
resort in the suburbs, and take supper at a 
tea garden which he remembered. Here he 


GAME OF HARES AND HOUNDS. 63 

ordered serafina requesones as the dessert, 
and Mrs. Smith was surprised and delighted 
to hud that the uncouth appellation meant 
delicious custards. 

I haven’t tasted anything so nice in 
years,” she said — not since I was married. 
Do try them, Father. And how did you 
know that I was fond of custards ? But, of 
course, it was only a happy chance, and you 
could not have really known.” 

Mr. Smith regarded his wife with surprise. 

Why, Mother,” he said, I had no idea you 
had kept your childish liking for those 
insipid things. I have never seen you eat 
them since we were married. Now, I would 
greatly prefer a heaping plate of buckwheat 
cakes, but I presume they never heard of 
them in this benighted country.” 

I fear not,” said the count, and in their 
absence will you not try a requesone ? ” 

Mr. Smith tasted the custard grudgingly. 
“ How can anyone care for such baby’s 
food ! ” he demanded contemptuously, push- 
ing his dish aside with great ostentation, 
but when the waiter removed it, he ordered 
another for his wife, remarking : 

“Here, Mother, if you have been denying 


64 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

yourself all these years because I don’t like 
custards, just make up for it by having a 
double quantity the rest of your life. I am 
not such a dog in the manger as I have 
seemed.” 

As they entered the hotel that evening the 
proprietor bowed most deeply. A messen- 
ger from his excellency the Commandant 
of Fort Montjuich has just called, and 
regretted much that he missed you.” 

But we do not know the Commandant.” 

‘^That is possible; for, now I think of it, 
he did not at first inquire for you, but for the 
young American ladies who left this after- 
noon ; but when I told him that they were 
sought also by your excellencies he was most 
interested and asked many questions.” 

Neither Angelo nor the Smiths could 
account for the interest of the Commandant, 
though it was a natural sequence of the 
adventure which befell the girls at the fort. 

Whiskerando, although momentarily baf- 
fled, was all the more angry because he 
had been thwarted ; and, waiting on the 
Commandant, explained the event as he 
understood it. He believed that the girls 
were spies detailed to make drawings of 


GAME OP HARES AND HOUNDS. 


65 


Spanish ports, and that they wei’e in the 
employ of the United States. The letter 
which he had overheard he was sure was 
from some prominent naval officer, and he 
assured the Commandant that this unknown 
individual had expressly stated that he was 
coming out with the new torpedo boats and 
would join the party at Cadiz. 

The Commandant looked serious. ‘‘ It is 
more than probable that you are all wrong, 
Cardoza,” he said, but I will investigate the 
case. I will myself call on these Americans 
at their hotel. The gentleman mentioned to 
my orderly that they were stopping at the 
Hotel Nacional.” 

Here the Commandant was surprised to 
find that the party had suddenly left, but 
for what point was not known. One of the 
3^oung ladies had left a letter to be mailed, 
which the Commandant immediately con- 
fiscated. It was addressd to 

MR. STACEY FITZ SIMMONS, 

In care of Commodore Fitz Simmons, U. S. N., 
Brooklyn Navy Yard, U. S. A. 

As the Commandant studied this address 
he remembered that he had met Commodore 


66 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


Fitz Simmous when the latter was visiting 
Barcelona some years before, and lie jumped 
at the conclusion that Milly was in corre- 
spondence with the Commodore. He read 
the letter carefully. It seemed most inno- 
cent, but he had heard before of information 
being hidden in what was apparently only a 
love letter ; there were such things as sym- 
pathetic inks and cipher; and, in case hostili- 
ties were declared between the United States 
and Spain, it would be just as well to warn 
them to leave the country. He made this 
report to Sergeant Cardoza, who was not quite 
satisfied ; the latter had an artist’s love for his 
profession, and he determined not to wait 
until the case was actually given him to look 
up, but, if their paths ever crossed again, to 
do a little private investigating on his own 
account. 

He ascertained that a second party of 
Americans had arrived, and were now at the 
Hotel Nacional, and that they had expected 
to meet the first party. Sergeant Cardoza 
reasoned that they might or might not be 
concerned in the same plot, but that it would 
do no harm to begin his campaign by watch- 
ing them ; uot only because he might detect 


GAME OF HARES AND HOUNDS. 


67 


them in some suspicious act, but also because, 
though innocent, they would probably lead 
him to the game he sought. 

Accordingly, the next morning when, hav- 
ing an hour at their disposal before the 
departure of the train, the Smiths and 
Angelo sallied from the hotel in the direction 
of the Parliament House to see Fortuny’s 
largest painting, they were followed at a 
little distance by an elderly Spaniard in 
citizen’s attire, but with something military 
in the cut of his gray whiskers, and a snarling 
smile which reminded Mrs. Smith when he 
approached of that most disagreeable of 
animals — the hyena. 

Angelo was speaking as the man politely 
held open the door for them to enter, and he 
could not but overhear. 

“ I am positive,” Angelo said, that your 
daughter did not leave Barcelona without 
visiting this building, for she was a great 
admirer of Fortuny.” 

How do you know that ? ” asked Mr. 
Smith. The Count was almost detected, and, 
guiltily remembering the many occasions on 
which Tib had confided to him her prefer- 
ences in art, recovered himself by replying : 


68 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

You told me that she is an art student ; and 
every artist, though he may personally prefer 
some other school of painting, must still 
admire Fortuny’s wonderful mastery in his 
own field.” 

Passing up the cool marble staircase of the 
Pai'liament House of Barcelona into the rich 
but shadowy Chamber of Deputies, they stood 
before Fortuny’s great painting, the victory 
of the Spanish troops at the terrific battle of 
Wad Kas in Morocco. They were dazed by 
the picture at first, for the coloring, though 
very delicate, palpitates in atmosphere. It is 
full of movement, too — of flying figures and 
draperies, of scintillating sabers and vaporous 
clouds of battle smoke. The artist had 
chosen the moment when the Spanish army 
was swarming over the ramparts into the 
Moorish camp, and had filled the foreground 
with the retreating African soldiery. The 
central group shows a party of Arab horse- 
men dashing out of the picture toward the 
spectator. The tawny sand dust, the blue 
smoke from the long guns, the floating scarfs 
and gauze turbans of light green, sulphur- 
yellow, rose, and lilac make the color focus of 
the picture. All is action and excitement, just 


GAME OF HARES AND HOUNDS. 


69 


as in Velasquez’ great battle painting — the 
Surrender of Breda — all is dignity. It would 
be hard to conceive a greater contrast than 
these two paintings, and yet each is a master- 
piece. 

“Fortuny had no sympathy with battle 
painting,” said Angelo. “ He devoted himself 
to this great picture because it was a commis- 
sion that he was not in a position to decline. 
He found his favorite subjects in peaceful 
life, and had a strong aversion to bloodshed 
and horror, either in nature or art. Color and 
flashing light intoxicated him, and none knew 
so well how to render them. He was the 
greatest of the modern Spanish painters.” 

The detective crept nearer; he was puzzled 
that these Americans should be interested 
in this picture. It brought up thrilling 
memories to him, for he had fought in that 
very battle ; and, carried away by the enthu- 
siasm of his recollections, he unguardedly 
exclaimed, “ See, Senor ; I am there behind 
General Prim ! I was only in my teens then, 
but it was I who spitted that negro who is 
aiming his rifle at the general. You Ameri- 
cans think that we Spaniards cannot fight. 
You should have seen us that day.” 


70 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

‘^Did you know Fortuny ?” Angelo asked. 

But the hyena shook his head : There was 
no one in my company of that name.” 

“No, not a soldier,” Angelo explained, 
“ but an artist. Your greatest modern artist, 
who painted this picture,” but the man con- 
tinued to shake his head with a lack of inter- 
est which betokened the densest ignorance 
of art. Feeling that he had acted unwisely 
in thus bringing attention to himself, he 
followed at a greater distance as the party 
hurried to the station, and waited until they 
had entered the train before approaching the 
office and learning that they had taken 
tickets for Tarragona. He was too late to 
board the train, but it was no matter: he 
knew their destination and would follow 
later. 

“Tarragona is a seaport town,” he said 
to himself. “ It is as I suspected : the spies 
are following the coast, to get plans and 
information concerning all our harbor de- 
fenses. It is at Cartagena where they will 
find most to do, for that is our best fortified 
port, and there is one of our three best 
arsenals. Yes, in case of war the United 
States would be glad to know how to take 



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m 1 


GAME OF HARES AND HOUNDS. 71 

Cartagena. How fortunate that I have a 
piece of work to do there myself. Ah, my 
exceedingly clever young ladies, you have 
wit, but you shall find that Cardoza has still 
more, and that he is a follower who when 
once interested cannot be shaken off ! ” 

They were, indeed, to suffer from his too 
assiduous attentions, but the sergeant was 
to learn on this first trip that there is such 
a thing as outwitting one’s self ; for the girls 
had not taken the coast trip, but had gone 
directly to Madrid. Even Angelo was 
wrong in his calculations, for he had fancied 
that they would travel by way of Tarragona 
in order to stop at the little town of Reuss, 
Fortuny’s birthplace. He lost valuable time 
in stopping over to look for them there, but 
not so much as the detective was losing in 
his prowl along the coast ; and while he was 
raging over his frustrated plans, Angelo con- 
soled himself for his delay by becoming 
more intimately acquainted with Tib’s father 
and mother. 

Mrs. Smith was much interested in all 
that he had told her of Fortuny, and at her re- 
quest he whiled away the tedium of the rail- 
way journey by relating the story of his life. 


72 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

‘‘ Fortuny’s father died early,” Angelo 
explained, “ but his care was replaced by 
that of a doting grandfather, whose life was 
bound up in that of the boy. The old man 
was a traveling showman, exhibiting a little 
theater of marionettes, in whose manufacture 
and management little Mariano assisted. 
His first attempt at painting was tinting 
with carmine the waxen cheeks of some 
]3uppet heroine or the nose of a Punch. The 
people of Spain are especially fond of dolls 
and puppets. The devotional images in the 
churches are examples of this taste. Each 
of the larger cities has its miraculous doll, 
loaded with brocade and jewels, and some 
of them have wardrobes in the sacristy 
which a queen might envy. Lesser images, 
decked with cut paper and tinsel, occupy 
household shrines, and votive gifts to the 
great wonder-performing queens are made 
of waxen models of arms, legs, and heads 
whenever afflicted members are supposed 
to have been cured by their intervention. 
Fortuny’s grandfather carried on a small 
business in making these votive ofierings, 
and it is probable that Fortuny learned his 
first lessons in anatomy as well as modeling 


GAME OF HARES AND HOUNDS. V3 

from shaping these limbs for the devout. 
Clusters of them, covered with dust and 
broken, some doubtless the work of the 
boy-artist, hung in the church at Eeus. The 
boy’s cleverness convinced the grandfather 
that he was formed for better things than the 
mere making of puppets, and he placed him 
at school in Reus. Here he studied draw- 
ing, and at fourteen painted a small picture, 
the ‘‘Apparition of the Virgin to a Shep- 
herdess.” This his schoolmaster thought so 
remarkable that he carried it to Barcelona, 
where there was an art academy, and it 
obtained Fortuny’s acceptance as a free 
pupil. His student days at Barcelona w^ere 
full of privation. A charitable society 
allowed him ten dollars a month, but this 
was not sufficient for his support, and he 
colored photographs and worked for archi- 
tects. At length, at the age of twenty, he 
gained the Academy’s highest prize, ena- 
bling him to live for tw^o years in Rome 
with a pension of five hundred dollars 
per year. No after success pi’obably ever 
seemed to him so great as this. It was 
honor, wealth, and opportunity at once. His 
income for three months was paid him in 


V4 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

advance, and this before leaving Spain he 
divided wdth his grandfather. No doubt he 
would have continued this division, but the 
old man died, and Fortuny was left alone 
with art. In 1860 Fortuny’s second oppor- 
tunity presented itself. Spain had declared 
war with the Sultan of Morocco. The city 
government of Barcelona concluded that 
they would prefer a grand battle painting of 
this war for their Parliament House to the 
historial picture which the recipients of the 
prize of Borne were expected to send back 
to the city. Accordingly, Fortuny was 
notified to join the Spanish army in Africa. 
And so it happened that Morocco found 
Fortuny, and he painted not only the great 
picture which we saw, but many others de- 
picting Oriental life.” 

Mr. Smith had gone sweetly to sleep dur- 
ing this exposition, but he woke with a 
start when Angelo ceased speaking, and 
when the latter apologized for having 
spoken at such great length Mr. Smith 
urged him to go on. 

I am not much of a connoisseur on art, 
he said, ^^but you can see where Tib gets 
her love for it. Mother might have been 


GAME OF HARES AND HOUNDS. 1o 

an artist herself if she had had Tib’s chances 
instead of marrying me. I’ve no doubt 
she has been starving for more things than 
custards without my even suspecting it, 
and I am glad I have found it out. She 
shall see all the pictures and hear all the art 
talk she wants in this trip; and it is very 
fortunate for us that you happen to be 
journeying our way.” 

^^Tell me more of Fortuny’s later life,” 
Mrs. Smith pleaded. “ Did he marry ? It 
seems to me that marriage must be a great 
risk for an artist, and might even ruin his 
career.” 

“For Fortuny, on the contrary, it was the 
crowning gift of kindly fortune. Not so 
much that by his marriage with Cecilia de 
Madrazo poverty left him forevei*, and he 
entered the grande monde, nor even because 
her father, the Director of the Academy of 
Painting at Madrid, could afford him valu- 
able assistance in his profession, but because 
Cecilia was herself an artist in feeling. She 
sympathized perfectly with her husband, 
was better educated, and cultured in the 
ways of the world, while brought up 
in a family of artists. The great picture 


76 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


gallery of Madrid being her home from child- 
hood, she was familiar with all the traditions 
of ai't. Association with such a woman 
could not fail to be a liberal education, 
and Fortuny himself dated his success from 
this event.” 

Mrs. Smith nodded approvingly. “ Yes, I 
can understand,” she said, “ how a man’s 
career can be not onlj^ vastly aided, but even 
made possible, by a woman’s devotion; but 
suppose the case reversed, and that a Avoman 
found herself possessed of talent for the 
development of Avhich she felt herself respon- 
sible to the Great Giver. Do you not think 
it would be simpler for her to keep her aim 
single by giving up the duties and joys of 
wifehood ? ” 

I think,” Angelo replied, “ that when a 
woman is possessed of , such rare talent, it is 
the duty of the man who loves her to devote 
his life to making it possible for her to realize 
the very highest achievements of which she 
is capable.” 

Mr. Smith, who had taken no part in the 
conversation for some time, looked at the 
young man suspiciously. 

I am afraid,” he said that you are in 


GAME OF HARES AND HOUNDS. 11 

love. One is apt to forget one’s own com- 
fort and to be beautifully unselfisli when one 
is in that condition.” 

“And is not devotion better than mere 
comfort?” Angelo asked, but Mrs. Smith 
brought the conversation back to Fortuny, 
asking if his subjects ^vere always Oi’iental. 

“No,” replied the Count, “he painted at 
Granada and in Seville ; and, during his later 
residence in Kome, a delight in gleaming 
satin and lustrous velvet, in lace and flashing 
gems, as well as in the play of sunshine on 
more artistic objects, crept into his w^ork; 
and his pictures became less simple than the 
Moorish studies, but the touch of the master 
gave them a dazzling brilliancy. Critics com- 
plain that his paintings have no soul, and that 
though wonderful in their technical qualities 
his subjects were not worthy of his genius. 
Fortuny himself was dissatisfied with them. 
He wrote to a friend that they were not 
the true expression of his taste, and that 

he intended to G^est a little, and then ’ 

But he was not permitted to realize his 
dreams. He died suddenly, at the age of 
thirty-seven, having spent his life in learning 
the technique of his art.” 


78 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

The party again broke their journey from 
Barcelona to Madrid by a stop of a few 
hours at Saragossa, to visit the beautiful old 
cathedral and the leaning tower." They had 
glimpses of interesting old houses and court- 
yards as they strolled through the streets, 
some of them dating back to the Moorish 
occupancy of Spain, but they were all too 
impatient to linger long, even in this historic 
and fascinating old city. 

Their spirits rose as they neared Madrid. 
Mr. Smith had grown to be really fond of 
Angelo, and he became garrulously com- 
municative, confidentially enlarging on his 
dislike of all “ foreigners,” a term which 
he applied (even while himself in a foreign 
country) to everyone not American. 

Angelo became more taciturn as he 
reflected upon the part which he was play- 
ing. The conclusion that it was hardly an 
honorable one was particularly borne in upon 
his mind when he asked himself what Tib’s 
opinion of it might be. How could he meet 
her frank, questioning gaze and justify him- 
self for deceiving her trusting and child-like 
parents ! He doubted not that they would 
find the girls without diflSiculty immediately 


GAME OF HARES AND HOUNDS. . V9 

upon their arrival in Madrid — he would have 
enough to explain then ! W ith a mighty effort 
he pulled himself together and made full 
confession. Mrs. Smith had been convinced 
when they first met of his identity ; she had 
divined the uneasiness which his conscience 
was giving him, and had tried ineffectually 
to prevent his confession by keeping him 
talking about Fortuny, but it was impossible 
for him to keep his secret longer, and it all 
came out in one blundering confession of 
deception with no justification excepting his 
love for their daughter, which in Mr. Smith’s 
eyes was the greatest crime of all. 

The angry father spoke his mind very 
plainly. Angelo did not attempt to defend 
himself, and timid Mrs. Smith wisely kept 
silence, though she pressed Angelo’s arm 
surreptitiously to assure him of her sympathy. 

After what you have told me,” Mr. 
Smith concluded, “you will not think it 
strange that we part company on arriving at 
Madrid.” 

“ It is what I expected,” Angelo replied. 
“I intended to leave you at the Hotel de 
Londres on the Puerta del Sol, and to find 
other lodgings for myself.” 


80 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


There is hardly any need of yonr taking 
lodgings at all, sir,” replied Mr. Smith. “ I 
would prefer that you returned to Italy at 
the first opportunity.” 

Angelo paled, but his voice was steady. 
“ Will you not first allow me one interview 
with your daughter?” he asked. 

Mrs. Smith spoke up quickly, to her hus- 
band’s surprise not giving him an oppor- 
tunity to reply. That will be for Tib to 
decide,” she said. “ You can give us your 
address, and we will write you — I am sure 
we can trust you not to attempt to see our 
daughter unless you hear from us.” 

It isn’t likely that Tib is anxious to meet 
you,” Mr. Smith muttered surlily, “ since she 
took such pains to leave no word as to her 
destination when she left Venice.” 

I have explained to you,” the young man 
replied, that I am under the disadvantage of 
a misunderstanding. As matters now stand 
I realize that Miss Smith would not care to 
see me. All I ask is an opportunity to 
explain. She is just, and she will not judge 
me without giving me a hearing.” 

Mother is right,” Mr. Smith at length 
admitted grudgingly. ‘‘We will let the little 


GAME OP HARES AND HOUNDS. 


81 


girl decide, only you must promise not to 
speak to her, or even to write her, until I 
give you permission.” 

I promise faithfully. I will discover her 
whereabouts and will report to you, and will 
wait to hear from you, trusting that you will 
immediately inform her that I am in Madrid 
and why I have come.” 

They shook hands a little stiffly, neither 
doubting that more than a few hours would 
elapse before the fulfillment of both promises ; 
each respecting the other fully, and liking 
one another better than they cared to show. 


CHAPTER V. 


IN OLD MADRID THE ESOORIAL. 


Yet something- somber and severe 

O’er the enchanted landscape reigned, 

A teri’or in the atmosphere 
As if King Philip listened near, 

Or Torquemada the austere 
His ghostly sway maintained. 

— Longfellow. 


!MONG the chief attractious of 
this Spanish journey to both 
Winnie and Tib was 
the art of Spain. 
Even at this time, as 
we have said, there 
was the shadow of 
the war cloud which 
was soon to envelop 
our own country and 
Spain, but none of 
our tourists could be- 
lieve that it was really driving toward them. 
Art has the wonderful power of awaken- 
82 



IN OLD MADRID— THE ESCORIAL. 


83 


ing feelings of admiration, sympathy, and 
even love for a people with whom we may 
think we have no points of contact. Fortuny, 
the greatest of Spain’s modern painters, 
exemplified this power in two w^ays. He 
followed the Spanish army to Morocco, only 
to become enamored with Spain’s enemies 
and to paint the Moor and Moorish life as 
they had never been painted before ; and 
Fortuny’s paintings of the gay, childish, 
thoughtless life of the Spaniard — content with 
fiowers, sunshine, and a guitar ; realizing per- 
haps more than any other people the joy 
that there is in simply being alive — win 
every lover of his art to a kindlier feeling 
for his models. 

Even the old masters, though farther 
removed from us, exercise the same humaniz- 
ing influence. Velasquez, painting with 
equal delight the beggar and the grandee, 
wins us to a feeling of brotherhood with 
both — they are both so human. 

The day which the three friends spent 
together in the Madrid gallery was one of 
great delight to them all. Their attention 
was chiefly claimed by the masterpieces of 
Velasquez, sixty of which are collected here ; 


84 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

making this gallery so rich that Velasquez 
cannot be adequately studied elsewhere. 
From one to another of the noble canvases 
the girls passed, now absorbed in silent 
admiration, now speaking to one another in 
low, almost reverent, tones as the power and 
charm of the great master held them in its 
magic spell. From royalty to beggardom, 
Velasquez was the great painter of character, 
and was equally enthusiastic in depicting the 
strong individuality, the picturesqueness, and 
richness of color in a group of ragged, repul- 
sive drunkards as truthful and unflattering 
to the unintellectual faces which he fi*e- 
quently found looking out from sumptuous 
adjuncts of velvet and lace. 

He is a painter’s painter, and though he 
holds the uninstructed observer by the 
power of his wonderful realistic achieve- 
ment, he fascinates the art student still more 
by his freedom of touch and the simple 
means with which he produced such mar- 
velous aerial perspective, such harmonies 
of tone. Tib cared most for his portraits. 
Velasquez was the court painter of Philip 
IV., as Titian had been of Charles I., and he 
painted the King and his family many times. 











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m OLD MADRID— THE ESCORT AL. 


85 


Tib was especially delighted with the por- 
trait of the little prince Don Balthazar 
mounted on his pony, and by several por- 
traits of the dwarfs who were a feature of 
court life at this time. In one of the large 
paintings Velasquez introduced himself 
painting among these little people. The 
legend that Philip took the artist’s brush 
and himself painted in the cross, thereby 
conferring upon the painter his highest 
honor, is disproved by the skillful exacti- 
tude with which the decoration is drawn. 
Philip must have been no mean artist to 
have been able to do it so perfectly. 

One of the artist’s greatest works is his 
Surrender of Breda, which has been called 
^Hhe finest representation of a cotemporary 
event in the world.” 

What I like about Velasquez,” said 
Winnie, turning from this great painting to 
the Tapestry W eavers, is the sympathy 
which he showed for the workers. See, he 
has ennobled these poor artisans ! That 
woman has the dignity of a goddess. And 
in this Forge of Vulcan he was not thinking 
of the ancient Greek deities, but of the black- 
smiths that he saw in the smithies of Madrid. 


86 WITCH WINNIE IN 8PAIN 

Every vocation was noble for him. He was 
not spoiled by the high offices which he held 
at court, or by the society of the grandees 
with whom he was associated. I have no 
doubt that he found it a great relief to turn 
at times from the society of the Dons to that 
of the common people.” 

As they made their pilgrimage through 
the gallery, pausing before one and another 
of Velasquez’ paintings, the girls were too 
much absorbed to notice that an elderly 
Spanish gentleman followed at a little dis- 
tance, and that though he pretended to be 
interested in some canvas near by, he fre- 
quently held his catalogue bottom upward 
and regarded them keenly, though furtively, 
from under his bushy brows. As their 
enthusiasm kindled, and they spoke earnestly 
though in subdued tones to one another, his 
delight showed itself, and he crept nearer, 
trembling with excitement, and listening 
greedily to their expressions of admiration. 
He might have been the^ghost of Velasquez 
himself gliding silently and unseen through 
the long galleries, grateful for appreciation of 
the \vorks to which he had given his highest 
endeavor. So Milly thought, and said, for. 


IN OLD MADRID— THE E8C0BIAL. 87 

less intent than the others, she finally noticed 
him and drew the attention of her com- 
panions to his strange espionage. ‘‘ He does 
resemble Velasqnez,” Winnie assented, ‘^but 
he is no ghost; he is possibly someone con- 
nected with the gallery who has noticed our 
admiration, and is watching us fearing that 
we may cut one of these paintings from its 
frame.” 

While Winnie and Tib agreed in their esti- 
mate of Velasquez as the greatest of Spanish 
painters, Milly was won by the loveliness of 
Murillo’s virgins and cherub children. They 
had a warm discussion as to the merits of 
their favorite artists as they walked home- 
ward, and Milly was reduced to tears by the 
energetic manner in which her friends 
asserted that all Murillo’s refined and 
idealized prettiness was not Avorthy to be 
compared with the brutal ugliness and ti*uth 
of one of Velasquez’ beggars. 

‘‘We have only a short time to remain in 
Madrid,” said Winnie, “but I can think of 
no better way of improving it than by mak- 
ing a copy of one of those heads of Velas- 
quez ” ; and accordingly she made inquiries of 
the steps which it Avould be necessary to 


88 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


take to obtain the desired permission. To 
her disappointment she found that this, like 
everything else in Spain, would require time. 
While speaking with the guardian the dis- 
tinguished looking Spaniard, noticing her 
troubled countenance, came forward and 
asked if he could be of service. “ I know 
the direction of the museum,” he assured 
her, ‘‘and will gladly attend to the matter 
and hope to place your permission to paint 
in th6 gallery in your hands to-morrow 
morning.” 

He was as good as his word, for the next 
day, as tliey were breakfasting, a servant 
handed Winnie a card bearing the name of 
Don and Dona Juan Perez de Silva. 

It was the obliging stranger, who had 
brought his wife to call upon them, and 
had not neglected to secure the desired 
permit. Dona Perez de Silva, or Dona 
Ximena, for they soon learned to call her 
familiarly by her Christian name, was dressed 
in the Spanish style without a bonnet, a rare 
old lace mantilla of great value, though 
intricately darned, depending from her high 
comb and draping her shoulders. Elabo- 
rately coiled love-locks were gummed to her 


IJSr OLD MADRID— THE ESCORT AL. 


89 


temples, and the only blemish on her really 
pi’etty face was an aggressive mole upon her 
i-ight cheek, which at first sight moved the 
beholder to pity, but was soon forgotten, for 
the lady’s eyes were so beautiful that the 
gaze could not stray from them. She had a 
coquettish way, too, of looking over the top 
of her fan, and of drawing her mantilla across 
the disfigured cheek, and a manner which, in 
spite of the fact that she was over forty, was 
very kitten-like and pretty. 

Though she had walked quite a distance, 
she wore white satin slippers and her heavily 
ringed hands were without gloves. She was 
still a beauty, but was growing stout, and she 
regarded the slight figures of the girls with 
envy. 

She explained that they resided in 
Cordova, but that Don Juan was writing a 
work on the ancient Saracenic library which 
existed in the city at the time that Spain 
was under Moorish domination, and that he 
had come to Madrid to look over the books 
preserved in the Escorial which had formerly 
made a part of that famous collection. His 
work at the Escorial was nearly completed, 
and they were soon to return to their home, 


90 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

which Dona Ximena, with characteristic 
Spanish courtesy, declared was completely at 
the service of their new friends. Don Juan 
added his entreaties and protestations to 
those of his wife. In his case they seemed 
quite genuine. 

heard your expressions of admiration 
for our great Velasquez,” he explained, ‘‘and 
as I understand English I could not refrain 
from paying attention, especially as I am as 
great an admirer of the master as yourselves. 
I determined that ladies of such appreciation 
should not be denied their so simple a 
request. I am honored by it, for the great 
painter, though not directly my ancestor, was 
of my family. His full name, as you are 
doubtless aware, was Don Diego Velasquez 
de Silva. The Silvas are a Portuguese 
family which has long been transplanted 
to Spain.” 

“ What you say,” said Winnie, “ interests 
me immensely, for I have a friend who traces 
his ancestry to a Portuguese by the name of 
Silva, who was captured in Holland at the 
siege of Leyden in 1574.” 

The Spaniard started. “It is possible that 
we are related, for on our family tree a 


IJSr OLD MADRID— THE ESCORIAL. 91 

branch lopped off represents the death of a 
certain Bautista, a brother of Velasquez’ 
ancestor and mine, who served under Valdez, 
and was supposed to have been killed at that 
siege.” 

‘‘Not killed,” Winnie replied, '‘but cap- 
tured, and captivated as well by a little 
Dutch maid whom he afterward married, and 
who prevailed upon him to forget the land 
of his birth and to settle in Holland.” 

“This is very strange,” replied Don Juan; 
“ if your friend can substantiate this descent, 
I shall be glad to welcome him as my 
relative; though I assure you it is too late 
to make any legal claim to estates to which 
the lost Bautista may have been the heir.” 

“I am sure that Van — I mean my friend 
Dr. Van Silver— would never think of disturb- 
ing you in the possession of your property, 
but it would be a most gratifying thing 
to discover that he was related, however 
remotely, to the great painter Velasquez.” 

“ If he were in this country I would gladly 
talk over the matter with him and investigate 
his pretensions. Or if he will send me any 
papers in his possession.” 

“I have them,” Winnie exclaimed. “We 


92 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

looked them all up when we were in Hol- 
land, and they proved his descent there to 
the satisfaction of his Dutch relatives ; I am 
sure that they will convince you as well,” 
and Winnie hew to her own room to dive to 
the bottom of her trunk for the evidence 
which she had brought with her from Hol- 
land. Don Juan was speaking when she 
entered the room with the precious old 
clock-face on which was painted the coat of 
arms of the Van Silvers. 

“ Our device is a very peculiar one,” he 
said ; some think it was derived from the 
name Silva signifying wood or tree, and the 
transplanting of the family from Poidugal to 
Spain ; but the Perez branch has also its 
legend which accounts for the tree torn up 
by its roots, and I confess I like that version 
better.” 

He ceased speaking as Winnie stood before 
him, rapidly tearing the wrappings from the 
clock-face. 

“ Have your ever heard of the ^ tree eradi- 
cated ’ as being your friend’s coat of ai*ms ? ” 
he asked. 

For answer Winnie triumphantly displayed 
the old clock-face which Mrs. Van Silver had 


IN OLD MADRID— THE E8G0RIAL. 


93 


given lier, with the quaint device of the 
uprooted tree. 

‘^That is proof enough,” Don Juan 
exclaimed ; “ your friend is undoubtedly of 
our family. With your permission I will, 
however, carry your papers to the office of 
an expert in heraldry, and will bring you 
back his written opinion.” 

Don Juan Perez de Silva bowed himself 
away, leaving Winnie in an intense state of 
excitement. ‘‘To think that dear old Van, 
of whom I have always made sport because 
he has not a spark of artistic feeling, should 
turn out to be related to the great painter 
Velasquez ! If I only had him here this min- 
ute ! O Tib, Tib ! why did you make me 
run away with you ? I’ll sit right down and 
write him. If he is in Venice perhaps he 
will come to Spain and look up this matter. 
Poor Van has certainly some rights, and 
I do think I treated him very shabbily in 
leaving before he returned, and I am going 
to write him just where we are and where 
we are going, and I am sure you cannot 
object.” 

“ No,” replied Tib, on reflection, “ I have no 
objections to offer.” 


94 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

“ Indeed ! ” and there was a note of inter- 
rogation in Winnie’s tone. 

Because I believe you have already 
done so. No, Winnie, I don’t blame you. It 
was too much to ask, and, of course, as you 
say. Van has some rights. I suppose we may 
expect him to appear at any moment, and I 
need have had no fears about Angelo — I mean 
about Count Zanelli. He was probably 
greatly relieved on his return to Venice to 
find that we had gone.” There was no 
tremor in Tib’s voice, and Winnie glared at 
her disapprovingly. 

You are the most heartless girl I ever 
saw in my life,” she said ; and it serves you 
quite right, if what you say is true.” 

Tib smiled in an inscrutable way ; she was 
arranging her box of paints. ‘‘We shall 
have a short day,” she said, for our first 
copying from Velasquez.” 

Winnie overturned the box with a quick 
movjement. Bother Velasquez ! ” 

The impulsive girl was down on her knees 
in a moment and helped Tib rearrange the 
little tubes, and they were soon busily at work, 
Tib copying a fragment from the Tapestry 
Weavers, and Winnie one of the Infantas. 


IN OLD MADRID— TEE E8G0RIAL. 95 

That evening Don Juan called again ; he 
had brought back Van’s papers. It is most 
wonderful,” he said ; “ you have supplied a 
part of our family history which was entirely 
lacking. I have written to our relatives in 
Holland, and have also a statement of the 
case here which I will be glad if you will 
mail to your friend. I spoke hastily, being 
on my guard against possible pretenders, 
when I said that it was too late to make any 
claim to property. The father of Juan Bau- 
tista de Silva never believed in his death or 
gave up hoping for his return. The govern- 
ment had awarded him land in Cuba, and 
these estates his father decreed in his will 
should be held perpetually in trust for the 
descendants of Juan Bautista. They are now 
cultivated as sugar plantations, and though 
unproductive at present on account of the war 
are very valuable.” 

All this was extremely interesting to Win- 
nie, as was the silver seal bearing the family 
coat of arms which he showed her. “ I have 
brought you also a book that refers to 
the tradition which the Perez family hold as 
to the origin of our device of the uprooted 
tree. Though in English, I was fortunate 


96 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


enough to find it in one of our book shops. It 
is possible that you are already familiar with 
it. If not, you will find it both entertaining 
and valuable, for it contains many curious ex- 
amples of our early literature, especially that 
portion relating to the adventures of the Cid.” 

As he spoke he handed Winnie a copy of 
Lockhart’s Spanish Ballads,” and turned to 
the legend of Don Diego Perez. 

“ It fell one day when furiously they battled on the 
plain 

Diego shivered both his lance and trusty blade in 
twain; 

The Moors that saw it shouted, for esquire none was 
near, 

To serve Diego at his need with falchion, mace, or 
spear. 

“Loud, loud he blew his bugle, sore troubled was his 
eye. 

But by God’s grace, before his face there stood a 
tree full nigh, 

A comely tree with branches strong close by the 
walls of Xeres, 

‘ Yon goodly bough will serve, I trow,’ quoth Don 
Diego Perez. 

“A gnarled branch he soon did wrench down from 
that olive strong. 

Which o’er his head-piece brandishing, he spurs 
among the throng. 


IN OLD MADRID— THE ESCORIAL. 9Y 

God wot ! full many a Pagan must in his saddle 
reel ! 

What leech shall cure, what priest shall shrive, if 
once that weight ye feel ?” 

He showed her also another poem, describ- 
ing the adventures of a brother of this hero, 
a certain Don Garci Perez, who displayed 
the device of the Tree with other heraldic 
emblems : 

“ The Moors stood drawn in order while past them all 
rode he. 

For when upon his shield they saw the Red Cross 
and the Tree, 

And the wings of the Black Eagle that o’er his crest 
were spread. 

They knew it was Garci Perez, and never a word 
they said.” 

In the preface to these ballads Lockhart 
quotes the following passage from Don 
Quixote, which gives additional authority to 
the legend : 

“ I have read, friend Sancho,” said Don Quixote, 
“ that a certain Spanish Knight, whose name was 
Diego Perez de Vargas, having broken his sword in 
the heat of an engagement, pulled up by the roots a 
huge oak-tree, or at least tore down a massy branch, 
and did such wondrous execution that he won himself 
and his posterity the surname of The Pounder.” 


98 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

Winnie was delighted to find so quaint an 
origin for the queei’ old Dutch coat of arms, 
and a letter was speedily dispatched to Van 
urging him to come to Spain and look up his 
new relatives. 

The Senora Ximena was genuinely pleased 
with Winnie, and the next day took the girls 
out to drive. There was a ‘‘ f on cion ” at the 
bull-ring which she was disappointed that 
they would not attend. She could not un- 
derstand their disapproval of bull fighting. 
To her mind it was a most innocent and de- 
lightful entertainment. They met the throng 
of every class pouring back from the specta- 
cle : beautiful ladies in white lace mantillas, 
lolling in aristocratic equipages; omnibuses 
laden with the middle classes, the women in 
gay silken shawls, yellow, white, black, light- 
blue, embroidered with garlands of the gay- 
est colors, with natural flowers in their bon- 
netless hair, and fans aflutter, like butterflies 
over pastures of brilliant blossoms ; and the 
very lowest orders, who had starved them- 
selves for a week in order to howl with 
ecstacy on this afternoon. 

The Queen Regent drove by accompanied 
by the royal children. She had not been at 


IN OLD MADRID— THE E8C0RIAL. 99 

the bull-fight, but was taking her daily airing. 
“ She is a good mother,” said the Seiioi’a. 
Even her enemies grant that.” 

She looked very grave and sad, as though 
a forecast of what was coming rose before 
her even in this joyous scene. 

“ One sees everyone on the Paseo,” said the 
Senora. There is the Prime Minister, Senor 
Sagasta. See, he has risen in his carriage and 
is bowing to the Queen.” 

“I am glad to have seen him,” said Tib, 
for he seems to me very wise and humane. 
I am sure that under his leadership Spain will 
soon have peace. Much is hoped from him 
in America.” 

Senora Ximena Silva shrugged her shoul- 
ders. He is a master of policy,” she said ; 

no one knows what he really believes. He 
can keep his temper, and that a true Spaniard 
cannot do under provocation ; but the Prime 
Minister can be silent and can dissimulate 
when he is doubtless boiling with rage. More 
than this, he can affect indignation when his 
heart is cold. My husband has seen him lift 
his hands to Heaven invoking vengeance, 
glaring at the enemies of Spain, when they 
are not before him; and again flatteringly 


100 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

wheedling them with his soft caressing voice 
or carefully couched letters. He would have 
made a magnificent actor. Would have 
made, did I say ? He is one ! He has the 
kind of power which comes from intrigue. 
He can make everyone do as he wishes 
now because all believe that he will do 
what they wish ; but such a man must fail 
his dearest friends. He will fail the United 
States, he will fail Spain, and he will fail him- 
self. Some day we will realize the dreams 
of Castelar in a republican Spain ; and the 
time may not be far distant. My hus- 
band thinks that we are on the eve of a 
revolution.” 

That evening a letter came from Father 
Tolo. The good man was overjoyed, and he 
welcomed them cordially to the village of St. 
Jean de Kampona. Come,” he urged, and 
come at once, for by rare good fortune there 
is to be a wedding in the village between 
young people of oui* two most important 
families. It is true that among the Basques 
all are noble Caballeros hijos de algo., but the 
bridegroom is descended from that Caspar 
Jauregui who raised the guerrilleros that were 
the terror of the French, and there have been 


IN OLD MADRID— THE E8C0RIAL. 101 

other warriors of the family nearer our own 
time who fought for Don Carlos under Zuma- 
lacarregui. The bride’s father is very rich, 
and all the ancient ceremonies of a Basque 
wedding will be carried out in eyeiy detail, 
and I have prepared for you a welcome.” 

As the entire party agreed that this was a 
rare opportunity, they decided to set out the 
next morning, stopping to accept Don Juan’s 
offer to show them the Escorial, as it was 
directly on their route, and it was their 
friend’s last day at the great convent. 

A ride of an hour and twenty minutes 
brought them to the Escorial. There is some- 
thing very impressive in the first view which 
one catches of this immense pile dominating 
from its site on a spur of the ragged sierra 
the dismal plain on which Madrid is situated. 
The huge building, at once convent, church, 
mausoleum, museum, and palace, was built by 
Philip II. to commemorate the victory of St. 
Quentin. The battle was fought on the day 
sacred to St. Lawrence, who was martyred by 
being broiled on a gridiron. Popular tradi- 
tion asserts that the rectangular plan of the 
building, with its long inteilor courts resem- 
bling the open spaces and the lines of cloisters 


102 WllGH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

the bars, were so constructed by the architect 
to represent a gridiron, of which the portico 
is the handle. 

The wind, which always howls around this 
desolate building, nearly took them off their 
feet as they walked from the station. Don 
Juan told them stories of monks whose in- 
flated petticoats had carried them balloon-like 
through the air, and of coaches and horses 
that had been bowled over as though they 
were tenpins. With such demons of the 
Prince of the Power of the Air blustering 
around the convent walls, one could well im- 
agine that its inmates would not care to make 
frequent sorties. 

The exterior was so fortress-like and for- 
bidding that the girls were not prepared for 
the view of the beautiful and calm interior of 
the church to which Don Juan introduced 
them from under the shadow of the choir. 
The architecture is noble and the decoration 
is not so tawdry as is often the case in 
Spanish churches, and they could not wonder 
that Philip II. loved his sanctuary and 
willed to die in sight of the high altar. 

It seems almost as if our own dear hymn 
might have been written here,” said Tib. 


m OLD MADBID—THE E8C0RIAL. 103 

“ ‘ From every stormy wind that blows, 

From every swelling tide of woes — 

There is a calm, a sure retreat.’ ” 

“ Our most Catholic king died a death of 
more horrible agony than any martyr,” said 
Don Juan, ‘‘but he had a good conscience, 
and was supported at last by the consola- 
tions of religion. He declared to his son 
that in all his life he had never consciously 
done wrong to anyone.” 

The girls were silent ; they were thinking 
of the horrors of the Inquisition, which were 
sustained and urged forward by this bigot 
King, and they realized the sad truth that 
one may do evil under the mistaken belief 
that one is rendering Grod service. 

As they stood in the tiny chamber and 
looked through the window through which 
the dying gaze of the King rested on the 
gilded reliquaries in whose efficacy he trusted, 
and later as they descended to the suffocating 
crypt where the bodies of so many kings and 
queens of Spain m older in costly sarcophagi 
— a horror crept into the day and brooded 
over them like a forecast of coming evil. 

Milly turned very white. “ Let me out 
into the air,” she gasped ; “ I feel faint,” and 


104 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

her father and Don Juan supported her up 
the staircase and out into the formal garden 
with its clipped hedges of ancient box. 

“It is the most dreadful place I was 
ever in,” she murmured. “ I felt as if I 
were going to be buried alive in one of 
those black marble caskets. Stay with me 
here, Tib. I feel too weak to make the 
rounds of the convent with the others.” 

“ You can sit here on this marble bench,” 
said Don Juan, “ and I will guid’6 the others 
only to the principal places of interest (we 
would walk many miles if we were to see 
everything), and when we are ready to go to 
the library I will come for you. That part 
of the building you must not miss ; it is the 
gem of the whole.” 

They were sheltered from the wind by an 
angle of the building, but it still wailed and 
howled like a lost spirit. The fresh air re- 
vived Milly, and she nestled her head on 
Tib’s shoulder confidingly. “Do you sup- 
pose the wind is blowing like this out on the 
ocean where Stacey is ? ” she asked. “ I 
feel such a strange premonition of something 
terrible is about to happen ! ” 

“This is a depressing place,” Tib replied. 


IN OLD MADRID— THE E8G0RIAL. 105 

^‘and you are tired and nervous. You will 
soon hear from Stacey. 1 too feel the in- 
fluence of the ghastly stories which they told 
us, and the sight of that grewsome crypt, but 
I refuse to believe that it has anything to do 
wdth us. Here is a poem by Martha Perry 
Lowe on the Escorial. I brought it along to 
read here. It begins pleasantly. Listen.” 

‘‘ I love the solemn awe tliat broods around 
This spot, so wondrous in its solitude: 

’Tis grave, e’en as the ancient faith that walked 
In high austerity throughout the land; 

’Tis still, as if the many hundred monks 
Who lie beneath my feet had e’en but now 
To Mary said their prayer, and one by one 
Crept down below unto their rest in death; 

’Tis cold and calm, as was the iron front 
Of him, its king, who built him here a house. 
Where with his bosom friend. Remorse, he came, 
And in her dread companionship grew pale 
With looking on the blackness of his soul. 

And pondeiing how best to meet his God; 

’Tis awful, with its royal dead, who lie 
In chill magnificence. 

Poor Philip! I can see thee now, within 
The narrow room near by the Chapel, where 
Midst all thy mortal pains thy gaze was fixed 
Upon the altar, while thy dying bed 
Was quivering in the mighty organ’s roll.” 


106 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

Tib laid down the book with a little sigh. 

I am afraid the experiment of reading that 
poem was a mistake,” she said. It does 
not seem very enlivening. However, I in- 
tend to be cheerful in spite of everything. 
See, Milly, the sun shines, and it is a beauti- 
ful world, after all.” 

As she spoke a man who was wandering 
aimlessly through the garden approached 
them. Tib recognized him, and started to 
her feet, a flush of pleasure suffusing her 
face. The young man, too, started forward 
impulsively. Then, as though constrained 
by some afterthought, he bowed gravely 
and walked rapidly away. 

“Did you think you knew that gentle- 
man ? ” Milly asked wonderingly, as Tib 
sank back upon the seat. “ I presume that 
you resemble some acquaintance of his, for 
he certainly acted as if he knew you. It is 
odd that you should both have made the 
same mistake.” 

“Yes, it was a mistake,” Tib replied in a 
cold voice — “a mistake which I shall not 
make again.” 

She was very quiet after this incident, and, 
in spite of her recent declaration that she 


IN OLD MADRID— THE E8C0RIAL. 107 

intended to be cheerful, Milly thought she 
had never seen her look so sad. 

They were both relieved when Don Juan 
came and led them to the library, where he 
had been sliowing Winnie the beautiful 
illustrated MSS. The superb barrel- 
vaulted room is nearly two hundred feet 
long. It is richly frescoed, and above the 
carved cases hang many valuable portraits. 
Don Juan was less interested in the paintings 
than in the books. He showed them how 
the latter had all been placed upon the 
shelves with their edges, instead of their 
backs, to the front, and led them into another 
room where the Arabic books and MSS. 
were kept, the Bibliotheca Arabico-His- 
pana Escurialensis.” Many of these were 
most beautifully illuminated, for the Moorish 
scribes rivaled the monks of the Script9rium 
who of old wrote the Gospels in letters of 
gold.” Many of these books,” Don Juan 
explained, came from the great library of the 
Moors in our city of Cordova. When the 
city was taken by the Spaniards the books 
were condemned by the Inquisition, and the 
greater part was burned. But Cardinal 
Ximenes had the good sense to rescue many 


108 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

that appealed to him by the beauty of their 
illuminations, and they are preserved in this 
room. It is, however, difficult to distinguish 
them from the later acquisitions of a captain 
of Philip III., who captured a Moorish ship 
containing the library of King Zidan — con- 
sisting of some three thousand volumes.” 

Winnie was fascinated by the wonderful 
work of the Moorish artist-scribes and 
deeply interested in Don Juan’s antiquarian 
researches, and he was equally interested in 
her. Here was a new type of young woman, 
charming personally, and yet with brains 
to appreciate the most serious studies. 
She was not bored like other women by his 
long disquisitions on his hobby, but, on the 
contrary, followed him with enthusiasm. If 
she were only the descendant of Juan Bau- 
tista,” he said to his wife, how willingly we 
would welcome her as a i-elative ! 

It wiU be all the same, I fancy, in the 
end,” said clear-sighted Doiia Ximena in an 
aside to her husband, as they escorted the 
girls to the train and renewed their entreaties 
that they w^ould visit them in Cordova on 
their return from northern Spain. 


CHAPTER VI. 


A VISIT TO FATHER TOLO. 


White crosses in the mountain pass, 
Mules gay with tassels, the loud din 
Of muleteers, the tethered ass 
That crops the dusty wayside grass. 

And cavaliers with spurs of brass 
Alighting at the inn. 

— Longfellow. 



NLY two stops were 
made on their way to 
the Basque country — 
at the ancient cathe- 
dral towns of Segovia 
and Burgos. 

Both cities were 
’ extremely interesting, 
and Burgos especially 
so, for it teemed with 
legends and traditions 
of Buy Diaz de Bivar, 
the Cid el Campeador. In Burgos he was 
born, and at the castle his wedding was 


109 


110 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

celebrated. In the cathedral they were 
shown the famous chest which, padlocked 
and iron-hamped, the Cid left as security 
with the Jews of Burgos on one occasion 
when he borrowed money of them. The 
coffer was supposed to contain the Gid’s 
plate and jewels, but when he returned the 
loaned money he told them to keep the chest 
left in pledge, as it was filled with sand. 

This was hardly a heroic act to be pre- 
served in popular tradition, but sharp practice 
with Jews was considered Christian behavior, 
and we only wonder that the Knight returned 
the borrowed gold. 

No mountain scenery is more picturesque 
than the Basque Pyrenees. The magnificent 
higher ranges are hardly surpassed by Swit- 
zerland itself. St. Sauveur, the Vallee de 
Gippe, Pic du Midi, Luchon, Couterets, Pierre- 
fitte, and Les Eaux Chauds are each wildly 
romantic in character. Besides the natural 
attractions there are fascinating architectural 
and historical remains. The girls exclaimed 
with delight at every tui’u in the road, and 
sketch books and camera were in hand all 
the way. 

Father Tolo’s village was called St. Jean 


A Vl^rr TO FATHER TOLO. 


Ill 


de Kampoua, or St. John in the Shadow, for 
it was cradled between two ranges of moun- 
tains which only permitted the sun to look 
upon its inhabitants in the middle of the 
day. It was quite a distance from the rail- 
road, but Father Tolo was at the station, 
beaming with delight, and established them 
all securely on the top of the diligence. 
What a ride that was ! Up through dark 
tunnels and along narrow defiles, the sheer 
rocky wall so close that they grazed it on 
one side and the roadway fell away in a 
precipice on the other hand. They met 
muleteers smuggling wine, which was carried 
on the backs of donkeys, but few other 
travelers. It was sunset when tliey dashed 
into the village — just two rows of houses on 
terraces of the two mountain slopes with a 
torrent dashing along between them instead 
of a street. Pretty Basque girls were kneel- 
ing beside it beating out their washing on 
the stones. Here and there a bridge spanned 
the gorge and on the bridges the inhabitants 
of the village were clustered, watching for 
the coming of the stage, the only other 
event of the day being its departure in the 
morning. 


112 WITCH WIHIilE IN SPAIN, 

“ There is Pepita,” said Father Tolo, point- 
ing out a winsome maiden with bewitching 
dark eyes, rich peach-like complexion, and 
jetty hair braided in one long tress. She 
wore the national costume — scarlet corsage 
showing white linen sleeves, a short blue pet- 
ticoat and white alpagatas, or sandals, laced 
about her shapely ankles with dark-blue braid. 
The girl smiled and waved her hand to 
Father Tolo, as did a young man by her side, 
who was dressed in short dark breeches and 
a dazzlingly white shirt ; an embroidered 
jacket was thrown over one shoulder ; a 
scarlet hoina^ or Tam-o’-Shanter, poised coquet- 
tishly on his curly head, and he wore sandals 
like those of Pepita. 

“That is the biidegroom that is to be,” 
said Father Tolo. “He is the son of the 
surgeon, who lives in the great stone mansion 
on the other side of the stream. Tliat is the 
home of the bride on this side ; the houses 
happen to stand just opposite each other, and 
so to honor the occasion a narrow suspension 
bridge has been swung across the chasm 
between the balconies. No one has set foot 
upon it yet, not even the workmen, for ropes 
were thrown over to the other side and the 


A Visn^ TO FATHER TOLO. 


1]3 


bridge hauled into position. The first to 
cross it will be the young couple after the 
wedding ceremony.” 

‘^See how gayly it is decorated,” said 
Winnie, ‘‘ with bright bits of tapestiy, wdth 
garlands of flowers, and ribbon, streamers, 
flags, and lanterns.” 

“That is nothing,” replied Father Tolo. 
“ Wait until to-morrow, when every in- 
habitant of this town will decorate his house. 
There will not be a balcony without its 
tapestry ; not a window^ without its lighted 
candle. The young girls are busy now 
decorating the church with flowers. Every- 
one assists at a time like this. We are not 
selfish as in the great cities. The whole 
village is one great family, ready to share in 
each other’s joys and sorrows.” 

Father Tolo had reserved rooms for them 
at the village inn — a wise foresight, for many 
w^ere being turned away. Dinner was served 
on a table in the great kitchen not far fi*om 
the blazing fire where a quarter of mutton 
and several fowls were roasting on the spit. 
This fire was not in a regular fireplace, but 
on a hearth in the center of the room, a 
strange canopy-like chimney depending over 


114 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

it. The kitchen was on one side of the 
entrance hall, on the other was the stable. 
The sleeping apartments were on the upper 
floors, and the girls’ room had a balcony 
which overhung the torrent. 

The next morning the party took donkeys 
and rode to the top of the neighboring 
mountain for the wonderful view away to- 
ward the Pass of Roncesvalles, where Poland 
and his men were buried under the rocks 
which the Moors hurled down upon them from 
the heights. Pepita’s brother had spread 
nets here to catch some of the turtle doves 
that cross the Pyrenees by thousands in the 
autumn. In the afternoon Father Tolo came 
to conduct them to the bride’s home for 
the beginning of the weddiug ceremonies, 
which were to last three days. 

Pepita’s mother welcomed them all, and 
introduced them to Pepita, who .was sur- 
rounded by the girls of the village. She 
was not dressed in bridal costume, but just 
as they had seen her the evening before, 
except that she wore all her jewelry, with her 
mother’s Basque cross and heart of gold 
filigree on the broad band of velvet at her 
throat ; there were gold coins too in her hair, 


A VISIT TO FATHER TOLO. 


115 


and a curious gold chain, with its four strands 
of differently fashioned links, fell over her 
bodice. A long table laden with good 
things stretched across the room ; hot Spanish 
wines lay in skins on thegayly striped blanket 
under which they had been brought over the 
mountains by mules, now champing in the 
next room. A w^hole lamb and rows of 
the turtle doves which had been caught that 
morning, fit food for a wedding dinner, were 
slowly turning on the spit. 

When the church bell began to ring an 
alarm, all of the guests invited by the bride 
ran hastily into the house, and the heavy 
doors were shut and barricaded. It was as 
if a night alarm had been sounded, and they 
had gathered hastily in a fort to resist the 
attack of the foe. This was exactly what 
was intended, for the Basque wedding cere- 
monies commence with a mock siege. The 
young men of the town had met at the house 
of the bridegroom to prepare for the attack. 
Peeping between the griffins in the wrought- 
iron balcony railing of the upper windows, 
the girls could see them lighting their torches 
at a great bonffi-e in front of the house and 
joining in a wild dance, the Saut Basque, 


116 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


about it. The music was contagious, and the 
young girls inside the fortress took the same 
steps around the bride. 

Suddenly Pedro, the old musician, sounded 
attention on his zam ho7nba, or Basque drum, 
and the noisy chatter ceased ; and sentinels 
were placed at every window and supplied 
Avith baskets of cakes, large and round as 
cannon balls, for a scout had reported the 
besiegers upon the march. On they came 
with music, laughter, and shouting, beginning 
the attack Avhen Avithin a few yards of the 
house by a discharge of blank cartridges, 
replied to from the besieged by a volley of 
cakes. Then the bridegroom advanced, and 
Pepita appearing at an open Avindow, the tAvo 
sang a rude duet in Avhich the bifdegroom 
demanded the surrender of the garrison, and 
the bride replied AAuth taunts and derision, 
Avhich seemed to goad the attacking party to 
madness. Some sprang upon the balcony 
and attempted to carry aAvay Pepita, Avho Avas 
snatched into the fortress by her friends and 
the Avindow closed. Serenades succeeded, 
then a display of fireworks folloAved by more 
rough sham fighting, in which Father Tolo’s 
umbrella, being used at once as spear and 


A VISIT TO FATHER TOLO. 


117 


shield, suffered a broken rib, the only case of 
wounding on either side. After this the gar- 
rison capitulated, Pepita’s father issuing with 
a flag of truce, and returning arm in arm with 
the bridegroom at the head of the conquerors. 

But this was only half the fun. Now 
that the fort was taken Pepita was still to be 
found. The band broke up into sacking 
parties who ransacked the house from garret 
to cellar. In one of the chambers behind the 
heavy curtains of the great bedstead was 
found what appeared to be a bed-ridden old 
woman, wearing a profusely ruffled nightcap, 
and still further disguised by bandages across 
her face. Four of the invaders lifted the 
mattress by the corners and carried it to the 
kitchen. With a trembling hand the bride- 
groom tore away the bandages, and loud was 
the merriment when there appeared, not the 
blushing face of Pepita, but the derisive 
visage of old Pedro the musician. Next, one 
of the youths staggered in from the stable 
and laid before the fire a large and suspiciously 
shaped bundle of straw, which in response to 
sundry pokes began to roll rapidly over the 
floor. The cord which bound the bundle was 
cut and Manuelo, Pepita’s younger brother. 


118 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

arose shaking the straws from his curly locks. 
Baffled again, the party flew to the top of the 
house. Had they been among the seekers at 
Modena, Ginevra would never have remained 
undiscovered in her chest, for all the coffers 
were opened and their contents strewed ruth- 
lessly over the floor. One probing in the 
meal chest was met by the sudden apparition 
of Father Tolo, throwing about him a dusty 
cloud as he brandishes the umbrella which 
had kept the flour from his reverend eyes. 
Again the irricina^ or shrill mountain cry, 
was sounded, summoning all to the kitchen to 
investigate another discovery. This time one 
of the young men tottered in bearing upon 
his shoulders a large sack of charcoal which 
he had found in an obscure corner of the 
cellar. The sack was opened, a few pieces of 
charcoal fell to the floor, and Pepita’s still 
blacker hair was brought to view. Her lover 
assisted her gallantly from the place of con- 
cealment, and they took the seats prepared 
for them at the head of the table, and a 
bountiful supper, of which all partook, ended 
the ceremonies of the first day. 

At noon the next day the same party came 
in soberer guise, and joining the bride and 


A VISIT TO FATHER TOLO. 119 

her friends proceeded to the mayor’s office, 
where the legal requirements were complied 
with. Then, before entering the church, 
Pepita, following an ancient custom of the 
country, knelt in the open street, strewn 
here with rushes and rbse leaves, before an 
altar improvised from a chair covered with a 
snowy napkin, and wept real or feigned tears. 
Each of the company, as they passed into the 
church, dropped in the wooden plate at her 
side a copper cent, the- only wedding present 
of the Basque bride. Had she not wept they 
would have withheld their contributions, 
deriding her with the worst of reproaches : 

Here is a girl who is glad to be married.” 
After leaving the church, where the young 
couple took their vows before Father Tolo, 
they passed, by way of Pepita’s old home, 
across the swaying bridge to the home of the 
bridegroom, whose mother showered down 
from a window several handfuls of wheat 
(emblem of abundance), saying as she did so, 
^^May abundance be your portion in this 
house ! ” After this came more feasting at 
the expense of the bridegroom’s parents, 
and the dinner was followed by the dancing 
of the Saut Basque. 


120 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

Neither of these feasts was the wedding 
dinner proper. This took place on the 
third day, the ^‘Day of Kejoicings,” at the 
village inn. To this both families con- 
tributed, and it was free to every chance 
stranger as well as the entire village. This 
has been the order of a Basque wedding as 
handed down from the most ancient tradition. 

As the dancing maidens and lads reck- 
lessly danced backward and forward across 
the lantern-hung bridge the picture presented 
was as gay and brilliant as can be imagined, 
and reminded Winnie of what the marriage 
of the Cid must have been in the old 
town of Burgos which they had just visited. 
The description of the ceremonies on that 
occasion, as given by Mr. Lockhart in his 
translation from the old . Spanish ballad, 
offered so many points of resemblance to 
Pepita’s wedding, that the girls were con- 
tinually quoting lines from it, as they 
strolled about the streets inspecting the 
decorations : 

Within his hall of Burgos the King prepares a feast; 

He makes his preparations for many a noble guest. 

It is a joyful city, it is a gallant day, 

’Tis the Campeador’s wedding, and who will bide away? 




A VISIT TO FATHER TOLO. 121 

Layn Calvo, the Lord Bishop, he first comes forth the 
gate; 

Behind him comes Buy Diaz in all his bridal state. 

The crowd makes way before them as up the street they 
go; 

For the multitude of people their steps must needs be 
slow. 

The King had taken order that they should rear an arch 

From house to house all over, in the way that they 
must march. 

They have hung it all with lances and shields and 
glittering helms. 

Brought by the Campeador from out the Moorish 
realms. 

They have scattered olive branches and rushes in the 
street, 

And the ladies fling their garlands at the Campeador’s 
feet. 

With tapestry and broidery, their balconies between. 

To do his bridal honor, their walls the burghers screen. 

With antics and with fooleries, with shouting and with 
laughter. 

They fill the streets of Burgos, and the devil he comes 
after. 

For the King had liired the hornkl fiend for twenty 
maravedis. 

And there he goes with hoofs for toes to terrify tlie 
ladies. 

Then comes the bride Ximena, the King he holds her 
hand. 

And the Queen and all in fur and pall, the nobles of 
the land. 


122 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

All down the street the ears of wheat were round 
Ximona flying; 

The King lifts oflf her bosom sweet whatever there is 
lying. 

^^How do you like our Basque wedding 
customs ? ” Father Tolo asked, as they 
watched the dancers from the bridegroom’s 
house on the evening of the second day. 

Winnie replied enthusiastically that she 
would like nothing better than to carry out 
tlie entire programme at her own wedding. 

Which Avill be within the yeai*,” said 
Father Tolo, “ if you crossed the bridge with 
the wedding procession.” 

“ I am afraid your omen is not a true one,” 
said Tib, “ for I crossed with Winnie, and I 
am fully determined to be an old maid, 
while Milly, who is engaged to be married, 
was afraid it would make her dizzy, and her 
parents took her around by the stone bridge 
below.” 

‘‘Nonsense!” replied Father Tolo; “there 
is nothing to be afraid of. Come with me, 
my child, and I will lead you over. As for 
the omen, it never fails.” 

“ Try it, Milly,” urged Winnie ; “ I will go 
with you,” and supported by her friend and 


A VISIT TO FATHER TOLO. 


123 


by Father Tolo the timid girl made the 
attempt. 

“ How beautiful the reflections of the 
lanterns are, bobbing up and down in the 
water ! ” Winnie remarked when they had 
gone about a third of the way, and Milly 
thoughtlessly looked down at the dark river, 
but as she did so she was seized with a 
sudden tremor. Look ! ” she exclaimed. 
Someone is lying in the river, someone 
dead or drowning.” 

All three incautiously leaned upon the rope 
which sei'ved as a hand-rail, and the bridge 
lurched to that side so violently that they 
^vere nearly precipitated into the W’^ater. 
Father Tolo instantly threw his weight to 
the other side, and the bridge regained its 
equilibrium, but Milly, terrified, could not 
be induced to go further, and they were 
obliged to conduct her back. ‘‘You foolish 
child,” said Winnie, quite vexed ; “ what you 
saw was only the reflection of your own face. 
There was no one in the water, was there. 
Father Tolo?” 

“ No,” replied the priest, but with strange 
solemnity ; “ T saw no one, not even a 
reflection.” 


124 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

“But I saw a real face, deadly pale, with 
distorted features ; but for all that, had I not 
known that he was far away I would have 
thought it was Stacey drowning before my 
eyes.” 

“ It is an evil omen,” said the priest, cross- 
ing himself ; “ would that I had not tempted 
you upon the bridge ! ” 

“ Evil fiddlesticks ! ” exclaimed Winnie, 
and with merry jokes and stories she at last 
succeeded in taking Milly’s mind away from 
the circumstance ; though the girls heard 
her crying piteously in her sleep that night, 
and when Winnie shook her until she 
awakened she was still sobbing. 

“ Oh ! that face ! that face,” she exclaimed. 
“ I shall see it until my dying day.” 

“ Nonsense ! ” replied Winnie ; “ when we 
get back to Madrid there will be a letter 
waiting for you at the banker’s from Stacey, 
and you Avill find that he is all right.” 

The next day they bade good-by to the 
village and to Father Tolo. 

“ When shall we see you again, and 
where ? ” they asked. 

“ Perhaps soon,” he replied. “ I am a good 
deal of a pilgrim. You are going to Anda- 


A VISIT TO FATHER TOLO. 


125 


lusia, you tell me; and about Holy Week I 
may go to Seville to see tlie beautiful proces- 
sion, so that you may see me there or, possi- 
bly, in Cadiz.” 

“ Will there be a festa there too at Christ- 
mas time? ” asked Tib. 

“ No ; I am going to Cadiz to meet a friend 
who is coming from Cuba, that is — what 
am I thinking of to say that ! I am going 
entirely for private reasons — of no conse- 
quence to anyone but myself. They would 
not interest you, and we have in Spain a 
proverb, En hoca cerrada no eritran moscas — 
into the closed mouth enter no flies ! ” 


CHAPTER VII. 


TOLEDO — CROSS PURPOSES. 


Old towns whose history lies hid 
In monkish chronicle or rhyme, — 
Burgos, the birthplace of the Cid, 

Zamora and Valladolid, 

Toledo, built and walled amid 
The wars of Wamba’s time. 

—Longfellow. 



Mr. and Mrs. Smith 
comfortably established 
in Madrid, Angelo had 
immediately begun his 
quest. It was not a dif- 
ficult one, for he soon 
ascertained where the 
Roseveldts and the 
young ladies under their 
charge were staying. 
There was a house op- 
posite with rooms to let, 
and he secured one whose windows gave 
ample facilities for observation. 

126 


TOLEDO— CROSS PURPOSES. 127 

He next dispatched a note to Mr. Smith 
giving him the information which he had 
obtaioed, and, in order to pass away the 
hours before he could call upon Tib, he 
determined to make the short excursion to 
the Escorial. Here fate threw him at once 
into her company. At first he sprang 
toward her with all his happiness written in 
his face; then he remembered that he was 
in honor bound to speak no word to her, 
and he rushed as quickly away, vainly hop- 
ing that she had not recognized him. He 
wandered disconsolately about the Escorial, 
hoping to catch sight of Winnie and to 
explain the situation to her, but in that vast 
labyrinth they played fruitlessly at hide- 
and-seek for the 1‘emainder of the day. He 
had taken it for granted that they were 
making the usual day’s excursion, and he 
took the train for Madrid which he thought 
they would be likely to return upon, and was 
puzzled to catch no glimpse of them. 

Mr. and Mrs. Smith, even less fortunate, 
had presented themselves at Tib’s hotel that 
morning, only to find that the entire party 
had gone out of town for a few days. They 
had left the greater part of their baggage. 


128 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

and tbeir rooms were engaged for another 
week. 

‘^Patience, Mother,” said Mr. Smith 
cheerily, as he noted the quiver of the little 
woman’s lip. Saturday is not so far away, 
and we will go now and see if we can find 
a restaurant where they sell those serafina 
celestials.” 

This was Mr. Smith’s rendering of the 
Spanish name for custards, and it is not 
surprising that he was unable to make his 
wishes undei*stood except when he saw the 
dainty displayed or recognized the name 
upon the bill of fare. 

They wandered disconsolately about the 
city, taking little interest in its sights, and 
returning to their hotel discouraged and 
weary. Mrs. Smith proposed that they 
should call upon Mr. Angelo and ask his 
advice, but Mr. Smith was irritable and 
would not consent to such an advance. 

‘AVe know all there is to be known,” he 
said, ^‘and we can take our own advice.” 

Angelo had returned to his rooms and 
kept diligent watch of the hotel opposite 
during all the next morning, but seeing none 
of the party enter or leave the building his 


TOLEDO— CROSS PURPOSES. 129 

apprehensions were excited, and in the after- 
noon he also learned that the American party 
would not return until Saturday. More 
magnanimous than Mr. Smith, he at once 
wrote to him, imparting this information, 
and assuring him that he would remain upon 
the watch and notify him immediately of 
their return. 

The total depravity which seemed to rule 
the sequence of events ordered it that the 
Roseveldts returned a day earlier than they 
were expected. The maid immediately in- 
formed Tib of a dark-eyed stranger that 
lived opposite who had made most insistent 
inquiry for her, and it was not hard for her 
to guess his identity ; but since his strange 
behavior at the Escorial she had no desire to 
meet him. The Roseveldts were ready to 
proceed on their journey, and had simply 
stopped in Madrid to oblige Winnie and 
Tib by allowing them time to complete 
their copies of Velasquez ; but a change had 
come over Tib — she had lost her interest in 
the paintings at the Museo, and announced 
herself ready to go on to Toledo. Winnie 
grumbled and protested, but Tib was 
obdurate : Madrid was insufferably cold and 


130 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

disagreeable. She shivered and coughed, 
and seemed really to have caught cold. 

If you are going to have a cold you 
w^ould better stay here where we can get a 
good doctor,” Winnie argued ; but Tib in- 
sisted that there was nothing like a change 
of air to break up a cold, and that she 
desired to reach the sunnier and more 
attractive regions of* southern Spain as soon 
as possible, and Winnie yielded to the 
stronger will. 

Angelo ]*ose the next morning somewhat 
later than usual and on looking from his 
window was at first delighted to see stand- 
ing before the opposite hotel a railway omni- 
bus piled with American baggage. As he 
looked Mr. and Mrs. Rose veldt, Winnie, 
Milly, and, finally, Tib issued from the hotel 
and took their places in the omnibus, 
changing his pleasure to dismay, for it was 
evident that they were not arriving but 
leaving. 

Angelo tore through his toilet and rushed 
into the street, but the omnibus had gone. 
The porter at the hotel, in consideration of a 
small gratuity, informed him that the senor 
and the senoras were bound for Toledo. 


TOLEDO— CROSS PURPOSES. 


131 


Hailing a cab, he followed in hot haste to the 
station, and, so leisurely are the movements 
of even railway trains in Spain, that though 
it had started wlien he rushed through the 
wicket, he ran after it and was pulled on 
board by the guard. 

An hour later and Mr. and Mrs. Smith 
called at the hotel and inquired for their 
daughter, only to be again disappointed. 
Mr Smith saw the tears in his wife’s eyes 
and made a great concession. 

^‘We will go to Mr. Angelo,” he said, 
“and see what he thinks of this turn of 
affairs ; he 'is not so smart as he thought he 
was.” 

But when he ascertained from Angelo’s 
landlady that her lodger had left suddenly 
that morning, and that the cab driver who 
took him to the station had returned with 
the message that he would be back in a few 
days, Mr. Smith was indignant. 

“ The rascal has gone off Avith Tib and her 
friends,” he said angrily. “ It is a dishonor- 
able trick, after all his promises, to leave us 
in the lurch in this way.” 

If Mr. Smith had known that Angelo 
while speeding toward the station in the cab 


132 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

bad written him a letter on a leaf of bis 
memorandum book, promising to let bim 
know as soon as be bad tracked tbe fugitives 
to tbeir next stopping place, and reiterating 
bis assurance that while watching them be 
would himself remain unseen, tbe worthy 
man might still have believed in Angelo’s 
good faith. But tbe cabman, while pocket- 
ing tbe fee, had not taken tbe trouble to 
deliver this letter, as it was not convenient 
to do so, while Angelo’s landlady was a 
friend of his, on whom be was glad to have 
an excuse to call. 

^^Wbat shall we do, Father?” Mrs. 
Smith asked, recalling the perturbed man 
to a consideration of the problem before 
them. 

There is only one thing to be done. 
Mother ; we must just follow on. It’s fortu- 
nate that woman at their hotel who spoke 
English knew where they had gone. I 
wrote down the name of the town, and we 
will take the first train.” 

But just here a fatal mistake threw Mr. 
Smith quite off the track. Another party of 
Americans had left the hotel that morning, 
and the woman whom he had questioned 


TOLEDO— CROSS PURPOSES 133 

had given him their destination instead of 
that of the Roseveldt party, and the Smiths 
set out that afternoon for Cartagena, the 
very fortified seaport town where Sergeant 
Cardoza was prowling in search of the dan- 
gerous American spies. He had almost 
given up finding any traces of them, when 
Mr. and Mrs. Smith, like a couple of innocent 
and elderly lambs, walked directly into the 
hyena’s lair. 

And all this time Tib, quite unconscious 
that three search parties were independently 
tracking her footsteps, had settled down 
with her friends for a residence of a few 
days at the Inn of the Red Hat in the 
ancient city of Toledo. 

Both Winnie and Tib had looked forward 
to Toledo with special interest. It is one of 
the most picturesque cities in Spain. Its 
situation is most commanding, and when 
Winnie caught her first sight from a dis- 
tance of its many towers and ancient walls 
grouped citadel-like on the rocks, she ex- 
claimed, Ah ! here is something that does 
not disappoint.” 

Hans Christian Andersen gave us a true 
description when he wrote : 


134 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


Thou chivalrous Toledo, — hail! 

Thou quaint old town of bygone days, 

Wiiere the Moorish sword-blades shone, 

Which all the world had learned to praise. 

Here naught but solitude now reigns: 

Decayed, — deserted, — silent all! 

While Alcazar’s windows and doors 
From their old rusty hinges fall. 

A lordly castle once, is now 

A common inn, in vulgar hands. 

Yet still the ancient coat of arms 
Over the open portal stands. 

They entered the city by Wainba’s Gate, 
centuries old, for Wainba Avas an almost 
mythical king of the Goths, and the gate was 
erected in the seventh century, before the 
coming of the Moors. There are many old 
Gothic houses still standing Avith legends of 
Rodeiick, but the greater portion of tlie 
toAAm is Moorish in character. The streets 
are crooked and detestably paved, and so 
narroAv that carriages cannot pass each 
other. The houses are massive and roomy? 
Avith interior courts. They Avere built like 
fortresses, and the streets, or rather foot- 
paths, betAveen them Avere made narroAV to 
keep out alike a hostile enemy and the rays 

of the Southern sun. It is a silent citv, from 

•/ / 


/ 





TOLEDO— CROSS PURPOSES. 135 

the absence of noisy carts. Occasionally a 
horseman clatters over the cobblestones, but 
the donkeys, which, with their panniers, are the 
carriers, move quietly, and but for the street 
cries of the venders one would never imagine 
one’s self in a city. The Cid was its first 
alcaide after it was taken from the Moors? 
and many localities have been little changed 
since his day. 

Winnie and Tib took a long walk the first 
afternoon after their ai’rival. They were 
both deeply interested in the Moorish 
remains, for the old magician — Angelo’s 
ancestor whose history had absorbed them 
in Venice — had learned much of his magical 
lore here. During the Moorish occujDation 
there had been a university for the study of 
alchemy in Toledo; and the black art was 
practiced and taught here for many 3'ears 
after the city was nominally Christian. 

A guide whom they engaged at the hotel 
a few days after their arrival showed them 
an old tower which he said was a relic of the 
school of magic for which the city was noted 
in the tenth century. 

Stuff and nonsense ! ” was Mr. Rose- 
veldt’s comment. 


136 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

“The Senor is incredulous,” said the boy 
coolly ; “ nevertheless it is true. The Tower 
of the Magians was famous for the tricks 
they played within it ; I have no doubt 
Satan was head professor. They say there 
is a bottomless well in the courtyard from 
which the old doctors drew fire instead of 
water.” 

“Young man,” replied Mr. Rose veldt, 
“ reserve such flights of your imagination for 
English tourists ; we are Americans.” 

“ Antonio is right, Mr. Roseveldt,” said 
AYinnie. “ There was a school of alchemy 
here, though it was probably only chemistry ; 
the pi-efix at, you know, means the. I have 
been struck with the number of terms we 
have in chemistry which are derived from 
the Arabic. There are alcohol, alembic, 
aludel, alkali, and others ; and almanac came 
to us, I presume, from the astronomer magi- 
cians of the Giralda. I have a very deep 
respect for the learning of those old Sara- 
cens. I wish I knew Just what experiments 
they tried in the old Tower of the Magians.” 

“I’ll warrant it was only hocus-pocus to 
mystify the unlearned,” replied Mr. Rose- 
veldt. “ Greek fire for the Saracen army. 


TOLEDO— CROSS PURPOSES. 137 

love pliilters, elixirs of life, and the gold- 
transmuting philosopher’s stone, and all that 
sort of humbug.” 

“It was not all imposture,” Tib replied. 
“ Greek fire was gun powder, and they could 
dissolve gold with mercury and pierce red- 
hot iron with sulphur. I do not wonder 
that they believed in their own magical 
powers.” 

“ What would the old magicians have 
thought of the miracles of modern science ? ” 
Winnie asked. “ Take photographic chemis- 
try, for instance. There is something posi- 
tively uncanny and suggestive of the black 
art in the way the image comes out upon the 
negative in the developing tray. Nothing 
which the alchemists did could have been 
more like the work of genii. By the way, 
what an excellent Mark room ’ that tower 
we just passed would make ! There is not a 
single window in its massive walls. Do you 
know, I believe it was a developing room. 
The enchanter Geber may have worked 
there. We get our word algebra from a 
treatise on mathematics which he translated 
from the Greek, but he was more noted as a 
chemist, and wrote the oldest existing work 


138 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


on chemistry, entitled ^ The Summit of 
Perfection.’ ” 

“Was there anything in it on photog- 
raphy ? ” asked Mr. Rose veldt. 

“ I am not sure,” Winnie replied, “ but even 
if it has not come down to us, there is no 
proof that such a chapter did not exist in the 
book. It may have been destroyed by the 
Inquisition. Perhaps they called Geber’s 
science the hlach art from that very room. 
I can fancy it hung with black velvet, a faint 
spark glimmering in a ruby glass suspended 
in one of those beautiful Oriental lamps. 
Then, of course, there must have been appa- 
ratus of strange shape, and phials tilled with 
potent elixirs, graduating glasses of purest 
crystal, a trickling fountain, and tanks filled 
with the wonder-working fluids.” 

“ The Senorita has then visited the Tower 
of the Magians ? ” It was Antonio who 
asked the question. 

“ No, Antonio. Why do you ask ? ” 

“Because the Senorita has described so 
precisely the interior. A stranger lives there 
now who holds no intercourse with the peo- 
ple of Toledo. No, I have not seen the 
room ; but the little Candida, daughter of the 


TOLEDO— CROSS PURPOSES. 


139 


muleteer who keeps his beasts below, climbed 
into the tower one day when the stranger 
was absent, and tells me it is fitted up as the 
Senorita has said, even to the ruby lamp and 
the strange bottles which were not of the 
apothecary. If the Senorita would like to 
see the room, Candida will show it to her 
sometime when the stranger is absent.” 

Winnie declined this offer. “ The man is 
probably an innocent photographer,” she 
said, and I have no desire to pry into his 
affairs.” 

“ Ah, no ! ” Antonio replied quickly. I 
have been in a photographer’s shop. We 
have one here in Toledo. It is a great sunny 
room with a glass roof ; not a dark tower like 
this. A room without windows ! Surely, 
those must be evil deeds which hide them- 
selves from the light of heaven ! I have seen 
the man. He came to the Red Hat and was 
shown our rooms, but when he was asked to 
sign his name on the hotel register, and saw 
that the Senorita and her party had arrived 
that day, he said that the hotel was too popu- 
lar a place for him, and that he like d not a 
place where people were continually coming 
and going and women chattering, and he 


140 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


asked for some quiet place in the neighbor- 
hood. I was standing there ready to bring 
in his luggage — but here was another strange 
thing. Though well dressed, he had none — 
no, not so much as a hand-bag. I did not 
think of it at the time ; I only thought of the 
rooms in the town that Candida’s father de- 
sired to rent, and I took him to see them, and 
strange to say they suited him exactly. And 
when I asked if I should go to the station 
for his luggage, he said, ‘ No ; it would 
come,’ and it has ; but you will never make 
me believe by ordinary means. He cannot 
be an ordinary man, either, to prefer solitude 
to the society of charming ladies like the 
Senorita.” 

“ What is the man’s nationality ? ” asked 
Mr. Roseveldt. 

‘‘The patron thinks he may be a Cuban 
who has come here to plot with the Carlists 
for the murder of the royal family. But the 
Cubans speak Spanish better than this man. 
I say that he is a Moor of Africa who has 
come back after hidden treasures. When 
they fled away they took with them maps of 
their estates and the keys to their dwellings, 
intending to come again. So I think it may 


TOLEDO— CROSS PURPOSES. 141 

be some descendant of that old Moorish Gov- 
ernor of Toledo who, when he learned of a 
conspiracy among the chiefs of the army, 
invited them all to dine with him in this 
town ; and as they came to dinner they were 
shown across the courtyard, but the bottom- 
less w^ell was covered with rushes, and down 
they tumbled to the number of four hundred. 
It is said that they were all richly dressed, 
with gems in their turbans, and in the hilts 
of their swords. Many people have striven to 
sound the well to bring up their bodies, but 
none have fished with a long-enough line. 
But this Moor may be an enchanter who can 
make the skeletons rise and deliver to him 
their riches.” 

“ Perhaps,” suggested Mr. Boseveldt ironi- 
cally, ^‘this is the old magician Geber himself 
who has been walled up all these years and 
has at last hopped out of his tower as fresh 
as ever, like a toad from a block of sand- 
stone.” 

“ Quien sahe ? ” Antonio assented. “ He 
is dark enough for a Moor, and the little 
Candida says he is no Christian; while he 
may have the power of the evil eye, for his 
glance is fierce and wicked.” 


142 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

Tib roiglit have had more interest in this 
conversation if she had realized that its sub- 
ject was Angelo, who, having arrived in 
Toledo on the same train with herself, had 
decided that he could better keep his prom- 
ise to her father if he did not lodge under 
the same roof. He had written to Mr. Smith 
at Madrid, giving him Tib’s present address, 
but as the worried man had left orders to 
have his mail forwarded to Cartagena, he had 
not received the information. Angelo had 
also communicated with his landlady at 
Madrid, had paid her bill, and had his lug- 
gage forwarded to Toledo; and was now 
whiling away his waiting for Mr. Smith’s ar- 
rival by taking photographs, after his habit in 
Venice, of the interesting old houses. He 
would have been amused by the specula- 
tions of Antonio and the little Candida; as it 
was, he was utterly unconscious of them, and 
concerned himself chiefly in not being dis- 
covered while keeping a watch on the move- 
ments of the Rose veldt party. He not 
infrequently caught glimpses of them : more 
than once in the beautiful cathedral, that 
wonder of carving, the oldest and most mag- 
nificent in Spain. It was a favorite resort of 


TOLEDO— CROSS PURPOSES. 


143 


Tib’s, as of liis, and it would greatly have en- 
hanced the pleasure of each if they could 
have studied it together. Enriched by the 
great Cardinal Mendoza and the greater 
Ximenes, and by successive sovereigns, though 
it has been several times plundered by in- 
vading armies, it is still a museum of eccle- 
siastical art, and, in its grand proportions, one 
of the most impressive cathedrals in the 
world. Tib came here regularly twice a day : 
early in the morning, before meeting her com- 
panions, and at vespers ; and she experienced 
a great uplift of soul and a consolation in 
her bewilderment and pain — a balm which 
came to her she hardly knew how, not cer- 
tainly through any spoken word or conscious 
act of devotion. The very vastness of the 
building was a comfort. It brooded over her 
like a sense of God’s providence protecting 
her, and wide-spreading enough to cover all 
his great human family. She did not know 
that at the evening service Angelo stole in 
too and watched her furtively from a distance 
bringing the blossoms of romance ” and lay- 
ing them at the gate of heaven. To Angelo 
the poem of Jose Zorilla to the Cathedral of 
Toledo ever after called up this scene. 


144 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

Through the long nave is heard the measured tread 
Of the old priest, who early matins keeps. 

His sacred robe, in rustling folds outspread, 

Over the echoing pavement sweeps. 

Upon the altars burns the holy fire. 

The censers swing on grating chains of gold, 

And from the farther depths of the dark choir 
Chants in sublimest echoings are rolled. 

There was another spot that was a favor- 
ite of both Tib and Milly, the cloister of the 
convent of San Juan de los Eeyes, built 
by Ferdinand and Isabella for Cardinal 
Ximenes and his Franciscan friars. Milly, 
especially, was fascinated by the elaborate 
carving in the exuberant style of the later 
Gothic, and began a water-color study of the 
semi-tropical foliage of the garden in the 
lace-like framing white arches, carven in all 
the exquisite caprice and richness of the 
Spanish flamboyant architecture. The clois- 
ter was too ornate for Tib’s severer taste. 
She did not care to paint it, but she loved to 
sit here with Milly and read aloud to her 
while she daintily touched in the deep-red 
camellia which she had herself placed on 
the breast of the image of the Virgin 
under one of the canopied niches, or studied 
the effect of her sketch with her head on one 


TOLEDO— CROSS PURPOSES. 145 

side in a pretty, bird-like attitude. To Tib, 
Milly was the prettiest object there, and she 
not infrequently laid down her book to make 
a penciled sketch of one of her bewitching 
poses. 

Among the books which Mr. Koseveldt had 
brought with him was Sir Arthur Helps’ “ His- 
tory of the Spanish Conquest in America.” It 
was from this volume that Tib read to Milly. 
She found much to admire in what it told her 
of Father Tolo’s hero, Ximenes, and it made 
the fascinating narrative seem the more real 
as they realized they were reading it in the 
cloisters which he had so often paced. 

Xo race of men has at any time been 
wholly composed of brutes, and it is but jus- 
tice to the history of the Spaniards in 
Cuba that we study for a moment with Tib 
and Milly the character of this remarkable 
man as given in this admirable book, together 
with the account of the heroism and self- 
sacrifice for conscience’ sake of another 
Spaniard, the clerigo Las Casas. 

Through the mists of history looms up like 
a lighthouse the name of one Spaniard who 
fought for the abolition of Indian slavery — 
that of the great Cardinal. Helps wrote of 


146 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


him very justly, “ He was ^ so clear in Lis great 
office.’ Peculation, unjust Leed of relation- 
ship, and mean doings of all kinds must have 
withered up in his presence. He was like a 
city on the margin of deep waters, such as 
Genoa, where no receding tide reveals any- 
thing that is mean, squalid, or unbecoming. 
If Ximenes had lived but a year or two 
longer, it is not improbable that a widely dif- 
ferent fate would have attended the Indian 
and the negro race ” — so wise and thorough 
were the measures with which he began to 
suppress Indian slavery, while he discouraged 
the importation of negroes into the Spanish 
possessions. 

Whan Cuba was colonized by General 
Velasquez, in 1511, he took with him as clerk 
and assistant a scholar named Las Casas. 
The latter writes that he thought of nothing at 
this time but of making money. He received 
a large allotment of Indians and employed 
them in the mines and upon his plan- 
tation, though he endeavored to treat 
them kindly. But he saw that the other 
Spaniards made no attempt to be humane, 
but oppressed and ill-treated the poor 
Indians most shamefully. On one occasion 


TOLEDO— CROSS PURPOSES. 147 

a noted Indian chief was burned alive. At 
the stake a priest begged to be allowed to 
baptize him, that he might go to heaven. 
The doomed man asked if there were any 
Spauiards in heaven, and, being answered in 
the affirmative, replied that he did not wish 
to go there. But what shocked Las Casas 
most was a massacre of the Indians which 
took place before his eyes. The Spaniards 
had been into the w^oods on an exploring ex- 
pedition ; and the soldiers, as they marched 
up a dried water-course, came across some 
whetstones, on which they proceeded to 
sharpen their swords. Shortly after this they 
reached an Indian village. The inhabitants 
brought the thirsty soldiers w^ater, and then 
sat down gazing at the strange horses in ad- 
miration and wonder. Suddenly a soldier, 
from no other motive it w^ould seem than a 
desire to try his newly sharpened sw^ord, be- 
gan to hack and hew at an unoffending 
Indian. Instantly the other soldiers caught 
the warlike fever, and in a few moments 
nearly the entire village was butchered. Las 
Casas ran from point to another, striving to 
prevent the slaughter, and at length it ceased; 
but he never forgot the sickening sight. 


148 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

Some time after this Las Casas and 
his partner gave up their Indian slaves, 
and Las Casas returned to Spain to lay 
the cause of the poor Indians before the 
court. He first saw Bishop Fonseca, who 
was Minister of Indian Affairs, and told him 
of the barbarities practiced by the Spaniards, 
adding that seven thousand children had 
perished in three months. The Bishop re- 
plied haughtily: 

‘‘What is this to me? what is it to the 
King?” at which Las Casas cried passion- 
ately : “ Is it nothing to your lordship or to 
the King that all these souls should perish ? 
O great and eternal God ! And to whom, 
then, is it of any concern ! ” 

King Ferdinand had just died, leaving 
Cardinal Ximenes regent for his grandson, 
Charles V., who was then but fifteen years 
old; and to the Cardinal Las Casas deter- 
mined to go. Ximenes had hitherto taken 
little interest in the Indians, but what Las 
Casas told him roused his indignation. He 
caused all the laws which Ferdinand had had 
made relating to them to be read in his pres- 
ence and in that of Las Casas ; and the latter 
told him where the laws were defective and 


TOLEDO^CROSS PURPOSES. 149 

where they had been disobeyed. Ximenes 
pronounced the Indians freemen under the 
old laws, and called a junta for the purpose 
of arranging new regulations concerning their 
treatment by the colonists. He ordered that 
those Indians who had been enslaved should 
be set at liberty. They were to be governed 
but with a view solely to their Christianiza- 
tion and civilization. He moreover appointed 
a lawyer to carry these new laws to the 
judges in the West Indies, and sent a depu- 
tation of Jeronimite monks to attend to the 
rights of the Indians ; and he bade Las Casas 
watch the execution of his plans. Be 
watchful for all,” were his parting words — 
Mirad por todos^ 

The grand scheme of liberty which Xime- 
nes had instituted was not likely to be 
received with favor by the Spanish colonists. 
The Jeronimites did little of what they were 
expected to do. The new laws were not 
enforced, and were afterward repealed. Las 
Casas returned to Spain to report this ill 
performance, but the energetic hand which 
would have carried on the work so well be- 
gun lay motionless in death. Ximenes, mur- 
muring In te, Domine^ speravi ” — “ In thee. 


150 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


O Lord, have I trusted,” had breathed his 
last. 

Las Casas did not give up his efforts in 
behalf of the Indians after the death of his 
patron. 

He attended a great synod of prelates at 
the City of Mexico, and thei’e succeeded in 
establishing certain points of astonishing 
liberality, — considering tbe fact that the 
Inquisition was in force in Spain, — among 
which were : 

That all unbelievers, of whatever sect or 
religion they might be, and whatever sins 
they might have committed, have neverthe- 
less a just lordship over their own possessions. 

Again, that the final and only reason why 
the Apostolic See had given supreme juris- 
diction in the Indies to the Kings of Castile 
and Leon was that the Gospel might be 
preached and the Indians converted. 

Las Casas’ labors in behalf of the South 
American Indians also were unbounded. 
He exercised a great influence over Charles 
V., and died at last, in the midst of his 
labors, in the ninety-third year of his age. 
But he had made his mark : even Philip IV. 
appointed an officer in every viceroyalty to 


TOLEDO— CROSS PURPOSES. 151 

journey through the country and annul 
slavery everywhere. 

Winnie was interested in these readings 
for a more personal reason than the other 
girls. ‘‘Las Casas reminds me of Van,” she 
said: “Van has just such a strong sense of 
duty to help anyone who is abused or dis- 
tressed. If there were any slaves on that 
plantation in Cuba to which he is entitled he 
would have nothing to do with it. He had 
a deep sympathy for the Cuban cause, too, 
and felt that the poor creoles had been 
shamefully oppressed by the Spaniards. I 
am afraid he will tell Don Juan so to his 
face, if he gets my letter and joins us to 
investigate his claims. Just think, he may 
be in Seville when we arrive there ! At any 
rate, we shall all have letters. You, Milly, 
are sure of a batch of them from Stacey, and 
Tib from her parents. How happy we shall 
be when we receive our first mail from 
America ! I can hardly wait to make the 
visit we promised the Silvas at Cordova, 
and would not, were it not that I must look 
up this Cuban matter for Van. Then, too, 
if we went straight on to Seville there would 
not have been time for answers to have come 


152 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

from any letters whicli we have written 
since we decided to come to Spain.” 

Their life in Toledo was so agreeable 
that the party lingered there longer than 
they had intended. Mr. Koseveldt indulged 
his fancy for armor by purchasing a col- 
lection of line old Toledo swords, for whose 
manufacture the city was once so celebrated 
— a Toledan blade rivaling in elasticity the 
famous Damascus scimiters. He spent much 
of his time at the modern manufactory of 
arms, talking with the experts in the dif- 
ferent departments, and he was especially 
interested in the artistic damascening or in- 
laying of gold, silver, and niello in arabesque 
designs. Some of the swords had mottoes 
enameled on their blades. “Do not draw 
me without reason, nor sheathe me without 
honor,” was a favorite, as was the chivalric 
“ In defense of my lady.” 

Mr. Koseveldt bought one bearing this 
motto, and gave it to Milly. “I don’t see 
what I am to do with such a thing,” she 
pouted. 

“ Oh ! don’t you ? ” replied her father. “ I 
thought possibly you might like a few little 
souvenirs to give away to friends on your 


TOLEDO— GROSS PURPOSES. 


153 


return home. Not to anyone in particular, 
of course, but just the four hundred ordinary 
friends like Stacey Fitz Simmons.” 

One day as they were returning from 
the convent of San Juan de los Reyes, Tib 
noticed a gypsy camp near the river. She 
was always interested in these picturesque 
people, and she approached one cart under 
which some dogs were tethered. A swarthy 
man with long unkempt locks met her. 
There was something familiar in his aspect, 
but it was not until he was joined by his 
wife that Tib recognized the dog trainer of 
the little community of traveling mounte- 
banks whom she had first seen at Fontaine- 
bleau. Nagy Pal was a Hungarian gypsy. 
He had been a partner with Lizi’s father in 
the Varietees Amusantes, or puppet and dog 
theater, in the old days ; but had formed a 
new combination now, having married the 
serpent charmer, and they were making a 
trip through Spain intending to visit some 
gypsy relatives at Granada. 

It is an evil country,” Nagy Pal assented, 
“and a more evil people. For they care for 
no beasts but bulls, and no amusements but 
those of the arena. I set up my show at the 


154 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


gates of the bull-ring at Madrid, but though 
my wife appeared on the platform with the 
great boa around her neck, and danced the 
scarf dance with it, which is one of our 
greatest attractions, and I howled myself 
hoarse telling them of the wonderful feats 
which would be performed inside the tent, 
not one entered. They alt streamed stupidly 
into the bull-ring to witness the slaughter 
of beeves. I trust you were not there,” he 
added, ^^for I cannot conceive how refined 
women can bear to look upon such a 
spectacle.” 

“No, indeed ! ” Tib replied ; “none of us 
cared to go to see the bull-fight ; that is an 
institution of the country which we are very 
well content to miss; but if you give an 
entertainment of your dogs here we will all 
attend it, and will talk about it too.” 

Tib was as good as her word and collected 
quite an audience from tourists at the hotel 
for the performance of the trained dogs, 
thereby winning the heartfelt gratitude of 
Nagy Pal and his wife. They were happy 
that there was a prospect of meeting again at 
at Granada. “I will bring my sister to see 
you there,” the dog trainer said, “ and you shall 


TOLEDO— CROSS PURPOSES. 155 

paint her, for she was the handsomest girl in 
our tribe. The gypsies of Spain are a differ- 
ent family from our people ; but we are all of 
the Eomany nation, and all speak Eomany, 
and sometimes we sti*ay into each other’s /(9rc»5 
and visit each other. It was so with my 
brother-in-law. He had wandered far from 
home, even to Buda Pesth, when he met our 
people ; but we took him in and he traveled 
with us one season, and when he went away 
he took my sister with him as his wife. It is 
five years since I have seen them, but I 
am sure of a welcome, for the Children of 
Egypt never forget either their friends or 
their enemies.” 

Angelo, who had waited very impatiently 
all this time for the coming of the Smiths, at 
length returned to Madrid to search for them, 
only to find that they had left the city at 
about the same time as himself, and that 
their destination was Cartagena. He could 
not imagine what had occasioned this er- 
ratic move on the part of the Smiths, and he 
w^as gravely auxious for their safety, for 
Americans were beginning to be regarded 
with decided disfavor by Spaniards. His duty 
to go in search of them seemed plain, but 


156 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

Toledo was on the route to Cartagena, and he 
determined to stop over long enough to have 
an interview with Winnie and tell her every- 
thing. 

On inquiring for her at the Red Hat he 
was received by Mrs. Roseveldt, who in- 
formed him that both Winnie and Tib had 
gone on to Cordova to visit some Spanish 
friends. Angelo had never before met Mrs. 
Roseveldt, and, though he explained that he 
had become acquainted with Miss DeWitt 
and Miss Smith in Venice, he could not 
confide to her the peculiar complications of 
the situation as he would have done to 
Winnie ; but he told her of the presence of 
Tib’s father and mother in Spain, and of 
their fruitless efforts to find tlieii* daughter ; 
and Mrs. Roseveldt’s sympathies were keenly 
aroused. 

I will write them at once to join us in 
Seville,” she said. ^AVe shall leave Toledo 
in a few days, take up the girls at Cordova, 
and go directly to Seville, where we plan to 
remain for some time.” 

Angelo bowed. An excellent plan if the 
letter reaches them, but they may have left 
Cartagena.” 


TOLEDO— CROSS PURPOSES. 157 

“Do you imagine that you will meet 
them?” Mrs. Rose veldt asked. 

“ I am on my way to Cartagena,” Angelo 
replied ; “ and I will be grateful if you will 
beg Miss Smith to have no ud easiness about 
her parents. I pledge my word to find them 
and bring them to Seville within a few days.” 

Mrs. Roseveldt looked at him kindly ; light 
was beginning to break upon her mind. 

“You seem very fond of Mr. and Mrs. 
Smith,” she said. “ I admire Mrs. Smith 
myself, but have always thought her husband 
a little brusque.” 

“ He is a porcupine,” Angelo replied, for- 
getting himself for the moment, “ and I shall 
get my hands well pricked for saving him 
from the hunters, but what of that ! She 
cares for him, and anything she loves is 
sacred to me.” 

“You speak of the hunters,” said Mrs. 
Roseveldt. “ Will you tell me what you 
mean by that phrase ? ” 

“ Only that Spanish officials regard Ameri- 
cans with suspicion, and while we were in 
Barcelona I am certain that Mr. Smith was 
watched and followed. I would advise you 
to be careful not to provoke animosity by 


158 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

any display of patriotism. You are probably 
spied upon by your domestics, who report 
your conversation and your correspondence 
to officials.” 

“ Thank you for the warning, but we have 
no domestics, though my husband has thought 
of engaging the hotel porter Antonio to act 
as courier and valet for the remainder of the 
journey. He has shown such an interest in our 
comfort we consider him remarkably devoted.” 

If Mrs. Eoseveldt could have seen her 
faithful servitor at that moment, as, crouched 
on the balcony just outside the open window, 
he listened to the conversation, she might have 
put a different estimate upon his character. 

Caramba ! ” Antonio muttered to himself. 
“ The sorcerer is then warning the Senora 
against me. HJxcellentissima perfecta ! He is 
no sorcerer, but a Cuban conspirator. They 
are all conspirators. Ah ! I understand now 
why the Senor has been buying swords, why 
he haunts the fabrica d'armas to learn the 
secret of their making. It is that the Ameri- 
cans may make such swords and cut our 
throats therewith. Ah ! Senorita, I will in- 
deed accompany you on your travels ; would 
that I could make two men of myself and 


TOLEDO— GROSS PURPOSES. 


159 


follow the Cuban as well. But lie swore 
that lie would join them in Seville, and I 
shall have him then ; and the little Candida 
has removed all the photographic negatives 
and plates which he has taken while in 
Toledo from his baggage, so that he will have 
no information of that kind to send to the 
enemy. The Americans are a sly people, but 
they cannot outwit the Spaniards.” 


CHAPTER VIIL 


CORDOVA. 

There Cordova is hidden among 
The palm, the olive, and the vine; 

Gem of the South, by poets sung. 

And in whose mosque Almanzor hung 
As lamps the bells that once had rung 
At Compostella’s shrine. 

—Longfellow. 



HE gas-lights 
sparkled along 
the Paseo del 
Gran Capitan, 
as though the 
street, named 
for King Ferdi- 
nand’s famous 
Knight Gon- 
salvo of Cor- 
dova, had been 
specially illuminated to celebrate their 
entrk. 

They had been met at the station by Don 



COBBO VA. 


161 


Juan Perez de Silva and Ids wife, the 
Senora Ximena, who now reposed in a languor- 
ous but elegant attitude -on the opposite seat 
of the old family landau. Winnie imitated 
their pose of graceful nonchalance with entire 
success, but Tib sat rigidly upright, uncom- 
fortably conscious that they were in travel- 
ing costume and had had a dusty railroad 
journey. 

They were soon in the midst of a proces- 
sion of open carriages moving slowly in the 
direction of a kiosk in the center of the 
beautiful park-like avenue where a baud 
was discoursiug operatic airs. 

The avenue had a strip of a park in the 
middle planted with rows of orange trees 
and Japanese medlars ; innumerable gas jets 
twinkled amid the shrubbery ; the ladies and 
gentlemen in the victorias were in full dress ; 
there was a flutter of fans, the odor of 
flowers ; and the blue dome of heaven hung 
its lustrous star-lamps over all. 

Tib wished that the coachman would drive 
more rapidly, or that he would turn off into 
one of the side streets and hurry them away 
from the many curious eyes. But presently 
the procession came to a halt, and Don Juan 


162 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

alighted in order to j^ay his respects to a 
lady in another carriage ; while another 
gentleman entered theirs, just as with us 
gentlemen call at their friends’ boxes at the 
opera. The visitor was slight and dark, and 
wore a great many diamonds. When it was 
explained to him that Winnie and Tib were 
Americans he shook his hands, tragically de- 
manding Avhy they were impoverishing him 
by robbing him of his estates in Cuba. 
Winnie protested in French that, whatever 
the attitude of the United States Govern- 
ment, she was not personally responsible for 
it, whereat he relapsed into silence, glowered 
gloomily at them for a few moments, and 
then ceremoniously took his departure. 

I fear that we shall be embarrassing 
guests,” Winnie remarked to the Seiiora 
Silva. Has the poor man lost much by the 
insurrection in Cuba ? ” 

“ Don Jose has no financial interests what- 
ever in Cuba, and he is immensely wealthy ; 
but he fancies that he shows his patriotism 
by protesting against the encouragement 
which he believes the United States has 
given to the rebellion in Cuba.” 

Tib was about to speak up hotly in favor 


CORDOVA. 


163 


of Cuban independence, but Winnie clasped 
ber band firmly, and realizing that sbe would 
only offend ber hostess, without doing any 
good to the cause which sbe championed, sbe 
was discreetly silent. 

Don Juan returned after a brief absence, 
and invited bis wife and the girls to ac- 
company him to some little tables in the 
shrubbery where ices were being served. 
More friends joined them here — one jaunty 
young fellow in a frogged velvet jacket : a 
student on vacation, Senora Silva explained. 
He bad bis guitar with him, and favored 
them with several songs in the intervals of 
the music given by the band, tucking bis 
cigarette over bis ear while be sang. Don 
Juan bad ordered a mysterious sweetmeat 
of frozen melon, called horchata de chufa, but 
the young troubador insisted that they 
should try also a dulce de azahai^ peculiar to 
Cordova, and made of orange flowers. It 
was the girls’ first glance at witty and 
romantic Andalusia. They could not under- 
stand all that was said, but the laughter 
rippling continuously around showed that 
playful badinage was being tossed back and 
forward. 


164 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

The student began a song whose import 
was : “ It is better to love a dog than to love 
a woman ; for a piece of gold a woman will 
leave you in grief, while the affection of a 
dog is endless.” 

The Senora Silva caught the guitar from 
his hand and replied in the same vein : “ It 
is better to feed a dog than to feed a man, 
for with a piece of meat a dog will leave you 
in peace, while the hunger of a man is end- 
less.” The young man laughingly acknowl- 
edged himself outdone, but the Senora made 
her peace by inviting him to call the next 
day and try her own which she assured 

him were far superior to those just served 
them. Then for the first time she noticed 
that the girls were weary, and, signaling to 
her coachman, ordered him to drive home. 
Even here there was much ceremony before 
they were allowed to retire ; and Winnie 
yawned audibly almost before their door 
closed on their overkind hostess ; while 
Tib declared that twenty-four hours more of 
such interchange of compliment would kill 
her. 

After the morning chocolate, which was 
served in their rooms, the girls descended to 


CORDOVA. 


165 


thQ patio, ov courtyard garden. There was a 
pretty fountain here in the midst of a bed of 
datura, whose white, trumpet-like flowers 
gleamed like marble lilies contrasted with 
the deep crimson of the cacti blossoms. A 
maid who was feeding the canaries, whose 
cages hung in the arches of the cloister-like 
porch, slipped into the house and informed 
the Senora that the Senoritas had descended, 
and presently both their host and hostess 
joined them. Don Juan congratulated them 
on their habit of early rising, and advised 
them to accompany him at once for a walk 
before the sun had heated the air. 

The daylight showed them a Moorish- 
Spanish town with narrow winding streets, 
detestably paved, a runnel of dirty water 
meandering between the cobblestones. All 
the illusion and glamour which the evening 
had lent to the Paseo del Gran Capitan had 
gone out with the gaslights. They hardly 
recognized it in its deserted condition : not a 
carriage in sight, no musicians in tlie kiosk, 
and the chairs set on top of the tables. The 
leaves of the oranges and medlars were white 
with dust, and the ground was littered with 
refuse. They turned quickly from the broad 


166 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

paseo into narrower and older streets, where 
the windowdess houses on either side, some 
of them built by the Moors and all following 
the Moorish pattern, made them feel that 
they were wandering in a city of fortresses. 
But archways here and there gave vistas of 
'patios like the Silvas’ — veritable bouquets of 
delicate tints massed beneath Oriental palms 
and tree-ferns. 

They crossed the ancient bridge which 
spans the Guadalquivir, the foundations laid 
by the Romans and the arches built by the 
Moors in the eighth century. 

That is our oldest monument,” Don Juan 
explained. As they stood upon the balcony 
formed by the central pier, and looked down 
upon the laundresses spreading their linen 
upon the banks, and, turning, watched the 
market carts moving lazily toward the city, 
the whole effect was one of gentle, sleepy 
country life, and they could hardly realize 
that this almost dead and buried town was 
once a busy and populous city, the magnifi- 
cent metropolis of the Moors. 

But the moment that they entered the 
great mosque (^or, in spite of centuries of 
Christian “ restoration ” and mutilation, it is 


CORDOVA. 


167 


still more of a mosque thau a Christian 
church), Winnie felt that the Spanish life 
of the day had vanished, and that only that 
Moorish period held the real Cordova. 

The Caliphate’s greatest Sultan, Abdurrha- 
man, began the building, drawing the plan 
and working daily with the mason’s trowel 
in hand, while eight Caliphs in succession 
carried on its erection. Abdurrhaman’s own 
revenues amounted to twenty-five millions of 
dollars yearly, and the mosque was his heir. 

A sense of almost illimitable extent is 
given by its immense width and depth : over 
a thousand columns of vari-colored marbles 
gathered from many lands form fifty-two 
intersecting naves, among which one wanders 
as in a marble forest. 

Under the Caliphate, Don Juan told them, 
ten thousand eight hundred and five lamps 
burned nightly a thousand pounds of oil 
perfumed with frankincense. ^ 

Christian lack of taste has done much to 
disfigure this unique building. An enormous 
choir has been raised in the center, barring 
the vista and interfering with the grand 
unity and simplicity of the original design. 
It is true that the wonderful carved seats. 


168 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

the illuminated mediaeval missals and choir 
books have an interest of their own, but the 
girls felt that they were out of place here. 
Wandering in the dim twilight, they inter- 
ested themselves in searching out the dis- 
tinctively Moorish portions, and they agreed 
that the building reached its fullest flowering 
of beauty in the three exquisite arches of the 
Mihrab, or sanctuary in which the Koran was 
kept. These arches were faced wdth Byzan- 
tine mosaic olfhe most perfect workmanship. 
Blues and greens blend as in a vase of the 
most equisite cloisonne enamel, the whole a 
piece of artistic jewelry unsurpassed in the 
world. 

Don Juan told them that when the brother 
of the Emperor of Morocco visited the 
mosque he made the circuit of the Mihrab on 
his knees weeping and smiting his breast as 
he thought of the lost glories of his people. 
He might w^ell have had such a dream as 
Heine attributes to Almanzor: that the pil- 
lars, sentient creatures, weary of supporting 
the Christian dome, waited not for the com- 
ing of some Moorish Samson to throw them 
down — but prostrated themselves of their 
own accord. 


CORDOVA. 


169 


In Cordova’s grand cathedral 
Stand the pillars thirteen hundred; 
Thirteen hundred giant pillars 
Bear the cupola, that wonder. 

And on walls and dome and pillars, 
From the top to bottom winding. 

Flow the Arabic Koran proverbs. 
Quaintly and like flowers twining. 

Moorish monarchs once erected 
This fair pile to Allah’s glory; 

But in the wild whirl of ages 
Many a change has stolen o’er it. 

On the minaret, where the Mollah 
Called to prayer amid the turrets, 

Now the Christian bells are ringing 
With a melancholy drumming. 

In Cordova’s grand cathedral 
Stands Almanzor ben Abdullah, 
Silently the pillars eying. 

And these words in silence murmuring: 

“ O ye strong and giant pillars. 

Once adorned in Allah’s glory. 

Now ye serve, and deck while serving, 
The detested faith now o’er us ! ” 


And he hears the giant pillars 
Their impatient anger murmur; 
Longer they will not endure it. 
And they tremble and they totter. 


170 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


And they wildly clash together, 
Deadly pale are priest and people, 
Down the cupola comes thundering 
And the Christian gods are grieving. 


In sanctity this mosque held second rank 
only to Caaba of Mecca, and it was held 
equal in honor to the A1 Aksa of Jerusalem. 
In richness and beauty it was first of all the 
temples of Islam. Its pulpit of ivory, jewels, 
and the most precious woods was fastened 
together with gold nails, and is said to have 
been worth a million dollars. There were 
unnumbered golden vessels, curtains, and 
veils of golden tissue. 

How is it,” Winnie asked, that while 
we are familiar with the beauties of the 
Alhambra through literature, as well as with 
the conquest of Granada, so little has been 
written of the glory of the Hispano-Arabic 
dynasties ? ” 

It is the old fable,” Don Juan replied, 
“ of the picture of the man killing the lion. 
If the artist had been a lion the scene would 
have been represented differently. Spanish 
history brings very vividly to our imagina- 
tions the last struggle, four hundred years 
ago, when Isabella the Catholic led the chiv- 


COBDOVA. 


171 


ally of Spain into Granada ; but of the 
defeat of Roderick and seizure of Spain by 
the Moors in the year 711, and the long and 
magnificent reign of the Spanish-Arabian 
Caliphs which followed, she is remarkably 
silent. Take the history of Abdurrhaman 
I., the founder of the Caliphate of Cordova. 
What an exciting and brilliant romance for 
such a writer as your Washington Irving! 
But to find its record one must read not 
Spanish history but old Arabian chronicles. 
A revolution had taken place in Damascus, 
and according to the simple mode of settling 
difiSculties (in regard to future claimants) 
prevailing at that time, all the Ommiades, the 
family of the deposed monarch, were mas- 
sacred. One, however, escaped and remained 
in hiding among the Barbary Arabs. 

Up to this time Spain had been gov- 
erned by emirs, or viceroys, subject to the 
Caliphs of Damascus. But when this revo- 
tion occurred the emirs, faithful to their old 
Sultan, invited the refugee in 755 to the 
throne of Spain. He brought to the young 
West all the learning and elegance of the 
Orient, and he founded a dynasty of almost 
fabulous splendor ; but he was a warrior as 


1V2 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

well, and settled the boundaries of his king- 
dom with Charlemagne by defeating his 
army at E,oncesvalles.” 

Leaving the mosque Don Juan led them 
back to his home by a circuitous w^alk on 
the city walls, erected by the Moors on the 
remains of the old Roman wall built by 
Caesar. They passed the ancient Alcazar 
raised by the Moors on the site of the castle 
of Roderick, the last of the Goths, and later 
the court of the Inquisition. From the roof 
of one of the towers they gained a beautiful 
view of the city. This fortress, Don Juan 
informed them, was the barracks of the 
mounted bodyguard of the Caliph — “ twelve 
thousand horsemen whose belts and scimi- 
ters were studded with gold.” 

After returning to the house, where 
luncheon had been awaiting them foi* some 
time, their host brought to the table from his 
library a history by the Arabian Ashsha- 
kandy, and translated for them bits of 
description of the Moorish Cordova. The 
Arab writer stated that he had traveled ten 
miles through the city and its two suburbs, 
by the light of lamps, along an uninterrupted 
extent of buildings; and that it contained 


CORDOVA. 


173 


six hundred mosques, eight hundred schools, 
nine hundred public baths, eighty thousand 
shops, two hundred and sixty-three thousand 
houses, six hundred inns, a library of six 
hundred thousand volumes, and one million 
inhabitants, while it was the capital of a 
kingdom containing three thousand towns 
and villages, of which eighty were cities. 

have heard,” said Tib, “that each city 
of Arabian Spain had its specialty in learn- 
ing. We have found that Toledo was noted 
for its school of magic, which was probably 
an academy of natural science with a 
strong partiality for chemistry. What were 
the departments favored by the other cities ? 

“ When the mixed army of Saracen adven- 
turers first conquered Spain,” Don Juan 
replied, “ Toledo fell into the hands of the 
Magians from Persia, and it speedily 
obtained fame for its proficiency in the 
occult sciences. 

“ Ten thousand horsemen of Irak, the most 
noble of Arab tribes, settled in Granada and 
early introduced the arts of decoration and 
luxury. Seville was noted for its mathema- 
ticians and musicians. The Giralda still 
lifts its slender campanile, the first astro- 


174 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

nomical observatory in Europe. Tlie Moors 
brought their astronomy from Ur of the 
Chaldees, and the princij^les of Geber were 
applied and astronomical tables formed in the 
Giralda which register minute calculations 
with marvelous accuracy. Algebra, though 
bearing now its Arabian name (^Al-gebra^ the 
works of Geber), is modestly acknowledged 
to have been only translated by that mathe- 
matician from the Greek ; and Greek works 
upon conic sections lost in the original have 
been recovered in their Arabic translations. 

“ Botany was set in order as a science by 
A1 Bithar of Malaga. The royal legion of 
Damascus was assigned to Cordova, and this 
city at once became the capital and prided 
herself on leading the others in general cul- 
ture as well. Situated between Toledo and 
Malaga, she profited by the medical dis- 
coveries if the herbalists of the latter city 
and the pharmacists of the chemical faculty 
of Toledo. Cordova contained fifty-two hos- 
pitals, and her doctors became so celebrated 
that Don Sancho el Gordito, King of Leon, 
being dropsical, came here to consult the 
Moorish physicians, and was hospitably 
entertained by the Sultan, who chivalrously 


CORDOVA. 


1V5 


sent his enemy home in safety with his 
doctors’ bill receipted in full. 

“ But Cordova was too general in her 
culture to coniine herself to medicine. Hei* 
authors, poets, romancers, historians, and 
philosophers led the Caliphate. She was the 
literary metropolis of the time. Some three 
hundred authors and scribes swarmed the 
great library — translating, transciibing, criti- 
cising, commentating, plagiarizing, praising 
the works already written and swelling the 
enormous number by their own original 
productions. Every man in Cordova was a 
book collector, and authorship must have 
been a lucrative calling, for manuscripts 
were sold at auction for fabulous prices. 
One learned scribe records that he long 
wished to possess a certain work, when one 
day he saw it offered at a public auction ; it 
was speedily run up to an extravagant sum, 
and was finally knocked down to a man who 
he knew could not read. He asked him why 
he was so anxious to obtain this book. The 
illiterate collector replied that he had set 
his heart on possessing a library of a thou- 
sand volumes, that he had for some time 
lacked but one of the desired number, but 


176 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

had been unable anywhere to find a book 
for sale ; and he had determined when one 
was offered him, be it what it might, he 
would obtain it regardless of the cost. It 
was the age of Haroun al Raschid of 
Bagdad, the hero of the Arabian Nights and 
the greatest patron of his time of the 
arts and sciences. This Sultan of Sultans 
never made a journey without a hundred 
men of science in his train, and a private 
doctor refused the invitation of the Sultan 
because a caravan of four hundred camels 
would have been required to carry his books.” 

The visit at the Silvas’ was not entirely 
devoted to antiquarian disquisitions on the 
glories of the Caliphate of Cordova. Don 
Juan brought out the old title deeds to the 
family estates in Cuba and a map of the 
different plantations included in the inherit- 
ance of the missing Bautista, ^^They are 
sugar plantations,” he explained, “and very 
valuable; but because none of our family 
have cared to become ‘ Peninsulaires,^ as the 
Spaniards w^ho live in Cuba are called, they 
have been rented to native Cubans, who of 
late years have become insurgents and have 
sent us no revenues. 


CORDOVA. 


177 


If your betrothed, who is without doubt 
a descendant of the lost Bautista, will go out 
to Cuba and will look after the estates, 
rendering to us during our lives the percent- 
age of the profits in working them, which 
I have explained in this letter, after our 
death they shall be his unconditionally. 
I have written a letter also to General 
Blanco, who will establish him in his rights. 
We have no children nor any near relatives, 
and my wife and I are strongly drawn to 
you. We adopt you from this time as our 
daughter, and some day we may go out to 
visit you in your Cuban home.’^ 

While Winnie was deeply touched by this 
proof of the affection of her Spanish friends, 
she was not at all sure that Van could be in- 
duced to accept the plantation with the con- 
ditions entailed upon them, because of the 
injustice which such appropriation would be 
toward the present holder. Don Juan con- 
tinued his statement of the situation, with 
no appreciation of the fact that in this case 
legal right was not moral right. 

“The young Cuban,” he explained, “whose 
family have farmed the estates for so long 
that he seems to think they belong to him. 


178 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


is named Hilario Lopez. Although he was 
known to be of revolutionary opinions, he did 
not join the insurgents-in-arms, but remained 
on his sugar plantation, carrying on its culti- 
vation until attacked by a band of General 
Weyler’s soldiers, who killed his father and 
brother, burned his home, mills, and other 
buildings, and drove his female relatives into 
the nearest trocha or fortified town. These 
were harsh measures, for which General 
Weyler has been criticised even here, but 
what would you? War is not a dancing 
party among friends ! This Hilario Lopez 
of whom I tell you escaped to the insurgent 
army. He may be killed by this time. At 
any rate, your friend will find no difficulty in 
maintaining his right to the estates.” 

Winnie was interested in what Don Juan 
had told her of Lopez, and tried to bring him 
to consider the matter from the Creole’s 
standpoint : but interest had so warped Don 
Juan’s sense of justice that he would not 
acknowledge that the Cubans had any per- 
sonal or political rights. Although himself 
a Kepublican, he could not see that a re- 
public of its own could be a possible thing 
for Cuba, and he became so excited during 


COBDOVA. 


179 


the discussion that Winnie was sorry she 
had mooted the. subject. 

That afternoon young Luiz Garcia, the 
student whom they had met the evening be- 
fore, called to claim Dona Ximena’s promise 
to let him taste some of her dulces and to pay 
his compliments to the young American ladies. 

A driving excursion was arranged for the 
following day to some Moorish mines in the 
suburbs, where, it was agreed, they would 
picnic, taking their siesta at a convent hos- 
pice in the neighborhood, and returning in the 
cool of the evening. 

Luiz was a cheerful companion, full of 
gay quips and jokes and songs. He w^as 
delighted that they were going still further 
south. 

From Seville you must certainly make 
an excursion to Cadiz,” he said, for it is 
there I am studying medicine, and it will 
give me pleasure to show you the city. It 
is but a pleasant sail down the Guadalquivir 
from Seville, and it is the pearl of Spain.” 

It is hardly probable that we shall visit 
Cadiz,” Winnie replied, as from Seville we 
wish to go to Granada to see the beautiful 
Alhambra.” 


180 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

This remark set Don Juan ofi* again upon 
his hobby of Moorish archgeology. 

Ah, yes ; the Alhambra of Granada is 
indeed a wonder worth seeing,” he said; 
“ but these ruins, that are to-day only grass- 
grown mounds, were once the Alhambra of 
Cordova — a still more marvelous palace.” 

Do tell us about it,” Tib said, but 
Luiz Garcia made a little grimace, for he did 
not share Don Juan’s enthusiasm. 

‘^The Alhambra of Cordova,” said Don 
Juan, not noticing Luiz, “was destroyed in 
the year 1009 and has passed into the realm 
of myths; if one-half of the fabulous-sound- 
ing glories which are assigned to it were 
authentic, it must have far surpassed in 
beauty the wonderful palace of Granada. 
It was built by the Caliph Annasir in honor 
of an odalisque named Zehra. It was a city 
in itself. Its building occupied twenty-five 
years ; some authorities say forty, but in that 
case Sultan and favorite must have grown 
sadly old ere its completion. The triumph 
of the whole was a pavilion called the Gold 
Salon, as the arabesques of its dome were 
incrusted with gold and jewels. An alabas- 
ter basin into which fell a fountain of quick- 


COBDOVA. 


181 


silver occupied the center of the apartment. 
It is said that when the Caliph wished to 
dazzle his friends he invited them to this 
salon and, ordering the vast number of 
lamps to be lighted, would enjoy their sur- 
prise as the light was flashed back by iri- 
descent lusters and sparkling jewels and the 
gorgeous gilding of the stucco outlined itself 
in lines of fire, while glittering draperies of 
gold and silver brocade and the kaleido- 
scopic colors and patterns of the mosaics on 
the wall and of the Persian rugs were re- 
peated in endless vistas by vast mirrors. 
Just as the dazzled eyes of his guests had 
recovered from their first surprise, and had 
begun to observe in detail these bewildering 
objects, the Sultan would order the quick- 
silver fountain to be turned on. The shock 
of seeing the hall with its contents mirrored 
in rapidly changing fragments was so great 
that those who beheld it for the first time 
hardly ever failed to fall upon their faces, 
fancying that the entire palace was crashing 
down about them.” 

The Senora’s dulces were served again for 
their luncheon, and, after a pleasant rest in 
the cool cloisters of the convent, the party 


182 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

drove back in the lovely Andalusian twi- 
light. 

“ How absurd it is to think that anyone 
should imagine that there could be war be- 
tween our countries ! ” Winnie said. 

“ Impossible, if the Americans are all like . 
you, Senorita,” said Luiz Garcia gallantly. 

The next day the Rose veldts arrived in 
Cordova and, after a visit to the mosque and 
a call at the Silvas’, carried Tib and Winnie 
away with them to Seville. 

Their Spanish friends accompanied them 
to the station, Luiz Garcia loading them 
with flowers and candy, while the Senora 
contributed a pot of dulces and Don Juan 
placed in Winnie’s hands the credentials 
which Van was to give to General Blanco. 
“Send them to him,” he said, “in case he 
has sailed to America and cannot visit me 
here.” 

“ He will be very grateful,” Winnie re- 
plied ; “ and you are sure to like Van better 
than you do me. I am positive too that you 
will see him very soon, for I would not be 
surprised if we found him waiting for us in 
Seville, and if so I will send him directly to 
you.” 


CORDOVA. 


183 


“ What a different experience we have had 
of Spanish character,” Winnie said to Tib as 
they steamed away with the Adios, adios ! 
Feliz viaje ! ” of their friends ringing in their 
ears. 

“We had always thought the Spaniards 
were reserved and distrustful, that their pro- 
testations of friendship were mere common- 
places of, expression, and that they were slow 
to take people really into their hearts.” 

“All Spaniards inay not be like the De 
Silvas,” Tib replied; “and then, Winnie, no 
one can resist you^ 

“No flattery,” Winnie replied. “The 
solid fact still remains that we have met the 
most spontaneous hospitality, the deepest 
confidence and generosity, from two represen- 
tatives of widely differing classes of the 
Spanish people, — the Northern peasant and 
the southern hidalgo, — and I find them both 
charming.” 


CHAPTEE IX. 


SEVILLE. 

The softer Andalusian skies 
Dispelled the sadness and the gloom ; 

There Cadiz by the seaside lies, 

And Seville’s orange orchards rise, 

Making the land a paradise 
Of beauty and of bloom. 

—Longfellow. 

EKGEANT CAEDOZA, pining 
and fretting, tramped up and down 
the railway station at Cartagena. 

He had been there 
for several days 
watching the ar- 
rival of every 
train, for though 
he had made a 
thorough inspec- 
tion of the hotels, 
and had patrolled 
the fortifications where he had expected to 
come upon the American spies making their 
184 






















I 






SEVILLE. 


185 


dangerous drawings, lie had as yet failed to 
discover them. 

He was all the more angry because his 
reputation was at stake. Although in the 
regular army, he was a born detective, and 
had a peculiar talent for recognizing spies. 
He had discovered several, and his com- 
mandant recognized his ability, and fre- 
quently detailed him for this special duty. 
He trusted more to instinct than to reason- 
ing, and he had had a strong instinctive 
feeling that Cartagena, as the most important 
port and naval arsenal of Spain, would be 
the place where he would find his victims 
busily picking up information. He was 
obliged at last to confess himself mistaken, 
and was about to relinquish the search, for 
he had just received an important com- 
munication from his chief telling him of a 
still more dangerous individual supposed to 
be traveling incognito in Spain foi* whom 
he was requested to keep a sharp lookout. 
This was the Cuban, Hilario Lopez, whose 
wife and children had been starved to death 
in consequence of General Weyler’s orders, 
and who had followed the general to Spain 
with the avowed intention of assassinating him. 


186 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

The description given of Lopez was distinct- 
ive in but one particular : A young man, 
dark complexion, black hair and eyes, slight 
physique, gentlemanly manners, and has 
a serpent tattooed like a bracelet around his 
left wrist Would probably land at 
Gibraltar and proceed to Cadiz, where he 
would meet accomplices. Then might be 
expected to follow General Weyler’s move- 
ments. 

There was nothing in this description to 
suggest Winnie and Tib, for whom he had 
been searching, and yet he unreasoningly 
connected the two. He had heard Cadiz 
mentioned in the letter that was read when 
he was listening behind the fortifications at 
Montjuich. As he understood what he had 
heard, it was here that Commodore Fitz 
Simmons was to meet his correspondent. 
Was it not possible that these Americans 
were the young Cuban’s accomplices referred 
to in the letter of instruction from Sergeant 
Cardoza’s chief % He had just decided to set 
out for Cadiz, when Mr. and Mrs. Smith 
alighted from the train at Cartagena and 
approaching him asked if he could direct 
them to a good hotel. 


SEVILLE. 


187 


He recognized them with a start. These 
were the people whom he had seen in Barce- 
lona and who were then looking for the 
American spies. He could hardly refrain 
from arresting them on the spot, but he re- 
flected that he would be more likely to 
secure the principal criminals if he worked 
himself into the confidence of these people, 
secured all the information in their posses- 
sion, and used them as decoys. He accord- 
ingly devoted himself most politely to their 
comfort, securing pleasant quarters for them, 
and escorting them during their search ex- 
peditions. Sergeant Cardoza could not quite 
make up his mind whether Mi*. Smith’s 
simplicity was real or assumed. 

The good man confided his entire history 
and that of the Roseveldt party to the ser- 
geant, thereby greatly increasing his mystifi- 
cation. It was just possible that they might 
all be just what Mr. Smith represented, 
innocent tourists and art students. Again, 
and this seemed probable as he thought of 
the suspicious letter, the young girls might 
be spies, and this simple old man have no 
idea that his daughter was implicated in 
such schemes. Still again, and this was the 


188 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


most disquieting possibility of the three, he 
might be the deepest and most dangerous 
conspirator of them all, striving to throw 
detection off the track. 

Mr. Smith had much to say of Angelo, 
who had deserted him, and whom he ex- 
pected to find here with his daughter, and 
against whom he professed to be much 
incensed. Now, if the last of the three 
possibilities was the correct one, neither the 
Koseveldt party nor this Mr. Angelo had any 
intention of coming to Cartagena, and the 
wily Mr. Smith was simply throwing him off 
the scent. Wherever they were they would 
surely communicate with each other, and 
Sergeant Cardoza watched the mails. 

Mr. Smith wrote no letters, but the sergeant 
found one for him at the post-office which 
had been forwarded from Madrid. It was 
Angelo’s letter from Toledo, announcing that 
he had traced Tib to the Inn of the Red Hat 
and was keeping watch over her from the 
Magians’ Tower. I await your arrival with 
great impatience,” Angelo wrote, ^‘for I 
shall not make any demonstration until you 
come.” 

These words had an immense effect on the 


SEVILLE. 


189 


detective. His intuitions had not failed 
him. This Mr. Angelo was without doubt 
the Cuban assassin, and the “ demonstration ” 
to which he referred must mean the assassi- 
nation of General Weyler, who was expected 
to pass through Toledo shortly on his way to 
Madrid. That Angelo had entered Spain by 
Barcelona instead of by way of Cadiz was 
no proof against his identity with Hilario 
Lopez, who would doubtless try to disappoint 
expectation in his movements. The descrip- 
tion of the Cuban would fit Angelo as 
Cardoza had noticed him before Fortuny’s 
picture in the Parliament House. 

The hyena determined to go at once to 
Toledo, but, in order to induce the Smiths to 
go with him, he carefully resealed the letter 
and caused it to be delivered to Mr. Smith 
by the hotel porter. 

Five minutes latter the overjoyed man 
joined him in the patio and bade him an affec- 
tionate farewell. I am off for Toledo,” he 
said. ‘^Angelo is all right, and I shall see 
my daughter this very night. You’ve been 
mighty kind to us, and I’m sorry to say good- 
by ; but you understand how it is : we are 
not traveling for pleasure — Mother and I 


190 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

have an object in view,, and that object is 
in Toledo.” 

Sergeant Cai*doza grinned. I have several 
objects in view also,” he said, ‘‘and, by a 
strange coincidence, I believe them to be in 
Toledo. I will accompany the Senor.” 

“Just my luck!” Mr. Smith exclaimed, 
slapping his knee with pleasure. “Every- 
thing seems to help us right along. WeVe 
met with so much kindness since we came to 
Spain that I have quite changed my mind 
as to the Cubeb question. Of course, I 
know that I should say Cuban, but it’s 
all such a little trifling thing that it doesn’t 
seem to be of any more account than a 
cubeb.” 

The hyena ceased to grin ; Mr. Smith was 
carrying his pleasantry too far. He was all 
the more convinced that he was playing a 
part. If so, were the other conspirators 
really in Toledo ? He still thought the 
chance worth acting upon ; and, traveling 
all night, the three ill-assorted companions 
alighted the next morning tired and hungry 
at the Inn of the Red Hat. 

Here disappointment met them all. An- 
tonio, who ushered them in, informed them 


SEVILLE, 


191 


that the Roseveldt party had left the evening 
before for Seville. 

Sergeant Cardoza was more than disap- 
pointed — he was angry. He believed now 
that he had been tricked by Mr. Smith, in 
whose present grief he had no faith what- 
ever. 

He knew that we should arrive too late 
to catch them,” he said to himself, and that 
was why he was so willing that I should 
accompany him.” 

He walked away grimly and ordered coffee 
at one of the little tables, while Mr. Smith 
escorted the weary and despondent Mother ” 
to a room where she could rest. 

Antonio served the sergeant, and, finding 
him communicative, the detective instinct re- 
gained supremacy, and he presently drew 
from his servitor all that he knew and all that 
he surmised in reference to the Americans. 

So you believe that this Senor Roseveldt 
is purchasing arms in Spain for the use of 
the American army. W ell, it may be. I re- 
member how interested he was at Barcelona 
in the collection at Motjuich, and this other, 
the stranger who pretended to have nothing 
to do with the Americans, and even avoided 


192 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

tliem, and yet did bold communication with, 
them — tell me more about bim.” 

“ All ! lie was a sly one, and tbe worst of 
them all. Tbe Senor Kose veldt bad decided 
to take me with bim as courier ; but this 
sorcerer, — 1 mean this Cuban, — with base 
lies convinced the Senora Roseveldt that I 
watched and listened, and as she found me 
immediately after these vile aspersions kneel- 
ling on the balcony just outside the room, 
where I was cleaning the shutters, she pre- 
vailed on her husband not to take me. Could 
anything be more treacherous than that ! 
Yes, your Excellency, they are without doubt 
a parcel of conspirators, else why should they 
object to be watched ? But the sorcerer — I 
mean the Cuban — is tbe worst of the lot.” 

^^Yes, yes,” replied the sergeant impa- 
tiently; but tell me more of the Cuban. 
Did you notice his hands and wrists ; was 
there anything peculiar about them ? ” 

That I cannot say, Senor. Ah, yes ! they 
were very clean.” 

Tbe sergeant shrugged his shoulders. 

Wbat were his occupations while in 
Toledo?” 

^^They were most mysterious, most unac- 


SEVILLE. 


193 


countable ; and showed that he had that upon 
his mind which made his actions different 
from those of ordinary men. Though he lived 
in the Tower of the Magians for days, he 
never once so much as chucked the little 
Candida under the chin, though she was 
always in the court when he went and came, 
and there has never been a lodger in that 
house but has paid tribute to her fascination. 
Was not such indifference monstrous, in- 
human ? Why, too, should he seek the soli- 
tude of that lodging ? Every other traveler 
who has taken those rooms has had good 
and sufficient reasons which one can respect: 
either they have been contrabandistas or 
Carlists oi- gamblers, or gentlemen seeking 
an asylum temporarily from our too active 
and intrusive justice ; or else they have been 
sick people requiring solitude, or madmen 
incarcerated there by their friends ; or others 
as mad — poets who wwite continually, and 
who incarcerate themselves; but he seemed 
to have none of these reasons, therefore we 
all concluded that he must be very wicked.” 

Did he remain hidden at all times ? ” 
‘^No, your Excellency, he was frequently 
abroad, taking photographs with a little box 


194 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

that looked like a surgeon’s case of instru- 
ments.” 

“All ! that is a suspicious occupation. 
What photographs did he take — people or 
buildings ? ” 

“ Ah ! that I cannot tell you, for though 
the little Candida removed all the plates, 
and we looked them over together in the 
very strongest light of noonday there seemed 
to be no image upon them.” 

“ Fool, they were not developed, and you 
have spoiled them all ! ” 

“ Is it so, your Excellency ? Then they 
can do no harm, and we ought to be praised 
rather than upbraided.” 

Sergeant Cardoza was not listening to 
Antonio. “You say they have all gone to 
Seville ? ” he asked. 

“ Not all, your Excellency ; I said the Senor 
Rose veldt and his family. The other two 
young ladies left several days ago I know 
not for what city, and the Cuban.” 

“ Yes, the Cuban ; he is the most impor- 
tant of them all — that is, you said he was the 
most suspicious in his actions. Where has 
he gone? It might be well to notify the 
authorities to keep a watch on him.” 


SEVILLE. 


195 


‘‘I do not know exactly Avliere he has 
gone, your Excellency, but he left before the 
Senor Roseveldt, and after the young ladies. 
He went to join them, of that I am certain, 
for in that conversation which I casually and 
quite unintentionally overheard while I was 
cleaning the shutters, he said : ‘ I pledge 
my word to join them and bring them 
back to Seville.’ ” 

^Ht is very inconvenient that you do not 
remember the destination of the young 
ladies ; would a peseta assist your memory ? ” 

Antonio was not waiting to be bribed ; he 
had really forgotten, but he could not forego 
claiming the peseta : it was nothing to him 
if he sent this stranger on a false journey. 
He rubbed his brow thoughtfully. “ Now I 
think of it, I am sure it was Cadiz.” 

Cadiz ! ” The sergeant sprang to his 
feet. He is the man I am after, and I am 
off. Stay ! If you want a situation as cou- 
rier you can probably obtain employment 
from these Americans who came with me. 
They are the parents of one of those young 
ladies. Tell them that the entire party has 
gone to Seville ; go there with them, and 
watch them until I join you. Tell them that 


196 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

I have been suddenly called to Madrid. To 
Madrid, mind you ; not a word about Cadiz 
as you value your ears. You shall be well 
paid if you watch well, and you shall hear 
from me in Seville.” 

Hastily paying his bill, the hyena bounded 
away. There was the scent of more impor- 
tant prey in the air than the possibly innocent 
Smiths ; and when they inquired for him, 
with gentle surprise, he was well upon his 
way. His scheme for keeping them under 
surveillance was successful. Mr. Smith 
accepted the services of the perfidious 
Antonio with alacrity, and the three set out 
that evening for Seville, the parents much 
cheered by Antonio’s assurances that they 
would surely find their daughter. Antonio 
should have kept in mind the proverb, It is 
always the unexpected which happens ” ; and 
the Smiths were right in cheering themselves 
with the reflection that sometimes also the 
expected really does happen, for a more 
surprised man than Antonio, or a happier 
couple than Mr. and Mrs. Smith, it would be 
hard to imagine when, on entering the hotel 
patio at Seville, Tib overturned three chairs 
in her i*ush to embrace her father and mother. 


SEVILLE. 


197 


Antonio was equal to the occasion, and 
grinned hypocritically. told you I would 
bring you to her, and a Castilian always 
speaks^ the truth — even (he added to him- 
self) when he has no intention of doing so.” 

Honest Mr. Smith could hardly contain 
himself for joy ; and as for the little woman, 
the rapture of finding her daughter after so 
long a succession of mishaps, was almost too 
delicious to be borne. To Tib it was all a 
great surprise, for she had had no suspicion 
that her parents had left America, and had 
written to them regularly twice a week ever 
since the beginning of the Spanish journey. 
Even Mrs. Eoseveldt, who had only known 
of their coming for a few days, had thought 
best not to tell Tib of Angelo’s call at Toledo, 
lest the anxiety which would be created by 
his information that they were wandering 
about somewhere in Spain might be too 
much for Tib’s loving heart to bear. 

But now everything came out, and Tib 
understood why Angelo had not spoken to 
her at the Escorial. Mr. Smith was in- 
formed of that' circumstance also, and it gave 
him great satisfaction. 

But what bothers me,” said Mrs. Smith, 


198 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

is where he is now, and why he doesn’t 
put in an appearance here when he knew 
that you were coming to Sevilla.” 

I think I have sufficiently explained 
that,” said Mrs. Roseveldt. “ He went to 
Cartagena to find you just as yon returned to 
Toledo, and when he finds that you have 
left the city he will join us here. We shall 
see Dr. Van Silver soon, too — of that I am 
very sure. ‘Journeys end in lovers meet- 
ing ’ is an old proverb which this old city will 
prove true ; and while we are waiting for 
these errant knights there are a few objects 
of interest to be seen in Seville.” 

“ Indeed, I should think so ! ” Winnie 
replied with alacrity. “ And first of all 
there is the Alcazar. Don Juan told me its 
history. It was built in the tenth and 
eleventh centuries by Jalubi, a Toledan 
architect, for a Prince Abdurrhaman. Se- 
ville was taken by the Spaniards in the 
thirteenth century. King Pedro the Cruel 
was a contemporary of Yusuf I., the chief 
decorator of the Alhambra, and he was 
seized with a desire to rival that unique 
palace, which it is possible he had visited, as 
he was then on good terms with Granada. 


SEVILLE. 


199 


accordingly employed Moorish work- 
men, the very architects and decorators who 
had worked upon the Alhambra; and the 
fairy arcades of the Alcazar blossomed in 
the same bewitching style.” 

“Winnie,” said Milly, “we protest. It 
was bad enough to have to endure Don 
Juan’s pedantries, but you shall not mount 
his hobby ; or if you do, you may gallop 
away after the Moors alone — we will not 
listen to you. I mean to enjoy myself while 
I am in Seville, and have no notion of improv- 
ing my mind. I bought a lovely lace man- 
tilla the other day, and I am going to wear 
it while in Seville in Spanish style, and be 
just as lazy and happy as a Spanish girl; 
and I hope I may be taken for one. At any 
rate, I shall not go poking around the Alca- 
zar with my nose buried in a red-covered 
Baedeker.” 

“At least you will come to the Alcazar 
garden with me,” said Winnie; and Milly 
went not once only, but many times, and it 
soon came to be her favorite haunt, as it is 
with every lover of Seville, for this garden is 
one of the most curious in the world. It 
was laid out by the Emperor Charles V., and 


200 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

possesses an abundance of fountains, tanks, 
ponds, and rivulets. It is neglected, and its 
semi-tropical plants run wild, turning the 
parterres into jungles. The artificial grotto 
is so old that it looks like a natural cave, 
and the box borders have grown into 
hedges. The labyrinth is one of the cele- 
brated features of the garden. The hedges 
which compose its walls are higher than a 
man’s head. The puzzle is to reach the 
fountain in the center, and few seekers reach 
the goal without the assistance of the guide. 

In other parts of the garden the walks are 
paved with tiles. Stepping on certain ones 
springs are touched which cause concealed 
fountains to spray the unwary passer. 

Here Milly could forget statistics and 
dates; could almost forget, too, that Stacey 
was away over the ocean — that it was winter, 
and she would not see him until May. 
There was no hint of winter in the garden. 
Here it was perpetual May, and she dis- 
covered new delights at every visit. There 
j^as a kiosk away in the under garden deco- 
rated with grotesque tiles of griffins, centaurs, 
dragons, fauns, unicorns, and heraldic lions 
where she loved to write letters to Stacey. 


SEVILLE. 


201 


The air was laden with the perfume of 
blossoms, and giant oleanders arched above 
their heads. The box hedges were cut in 
strange patterns : among others the eagles 
and arms of Charles V. Jasmine and cacti, 
rose and heliotrope, camellias, bromelias, 
palms, and tree ferns were mingled in all 
the luxuriance of a hothouse gone wild. 
They trod upon matted beds of dusky 
violets, and everywhere there followed them 
in some form the sound of water. It 
plashed in numberless fountains, murmured 
in the marble canal, laughed in the cascade, 
dripped from the rim of the overflowing 
basin, gurgled and rippled in the brook ; 
and in all its multitudinous combinations of 
sound there was not one discordant note. 

In all their explorations in Seville, An- 
tonio, who had come on from Toledo with 
Mr. and Mrs. Smith, was their most attentive 
guide. He had overcome Mrs. Rose veldt’s 
prejudices, and it was amazing to see to what 
extent he made himself useful to every one 
of them. Sometimes it seemed as if he were 
really ubiquitous, for he would start out 
with Winnie, see her comfortably estab- 
lished and sketching in the court of Pilate’s 


202 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


House, and then suddenly appear before 
Milly in the kiosk i*eady to mail her letter 
for her — in a large envelope addressed to 
Sergeant Cardoza at Cadiz. 

The picture which Tib loved most in 
Seville was Murillo’s Vision of Saint An- 
thony of Padua, which hangs in one of the 
chapels of the cathedral. The love and 
reverence in the saint’s face as he bends to 
the Divine Child, are so wonderful that the 
picture is popularly supposed to have been 
miraculously painted. It would seem 
almost sacrilege for anyone, even though he 
were not a Catholic, to mutilate this incom- 
parable work of art ; and yet an assassin- 
thief plunged a knife into the canvas, and 
cutting out a large portion carried it away. 
This fragment of the painting was afterward 
offered for sale in America, but was immedi- 
ately recognized and restored to the cathe- 
dral. It has been so skillfully inserted that 
the injury is not conspicuous. 

While Milly’s favorite resort was the 
Alcazar garden, Tib’s was the Alameda, or 
public garden, on account of the great 
variety of human nature that streamed 
through its paths. She loved to sit on one 


SEVILLE. 


203 


of its benches with her father and mother 
and make rapid sketches of the different 
types. Antonio gained the idea from the 
persistency with which she frequented one 
particular spot, that it was a rendezvous, 
and that she expected the mysterious Cuban 
to meet her here. 

Accordingly, when he had satisfied himself 
with knowing just what the others were 
doing, he invariably came here and watched 
the group from a little distance. One even- 
ing something remarkable did happen. The 
Cuban really came. 

Winnie happened to be sitting with Tib 
and her parents on this particular evening 
enjoying the never-ending procession of typi- 
cal Spaniards. 

The Alameda glittered with gas jets and 
swarmed with pleasure-seekers. Open car- 
riages lined the plaza in which the senoras 
received the calls of their friends as along the 
Paseo in Cordova. The promenade was filled 
with a laughing, ffirting crowd of pretty girls 
in white satin slippers, ruffled pink or yellow 
dresses, and black lace mantillas, a coquettish 
white rose behind the left ear, and the fan 
poised against the i*ight cheek. There ^vere 


204 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

priests in long skiff-shaped hats, with rosary 
and knotty thong for flagellation suspended 
from their girdles ; gypsies in fantastic cos- 
tumes, handsome young soldiers in showy 
uniforms, children screaming with delight, 
water venders and cake-sellers, beggars and 
countesses — a kaleidoscope of humanity. 
The band brayed hilariously, the crowd 
elbowed and jostled, odors of rose and helio- 
trope mingled with fumes of cigarette and 
garlic. 

In a more secluded part of the public gar- 
den a beautiful Spanish girl was gracefully 
dancing the fandango to the clanging of 
castanets and the Student of Salamanca,” 
played skillfully upon the guitar by a stu- 
dent. Two athletic young men passed with 
their arms entwined in brotherly fashion. 
One of them wore his hair long and plaited 
in a little queue at the back of the neck, a 
sign that the wearer was a professional bull- 
fighter. The girls had noticed the gaudy 
posters about the town, and understood that 
in a few days these two friends might be 
separated by a horrible death in the arena. 

There,” said Winnie; “what could be 
more tragic than that ! I cannot understand 


SEVILLE. 


205 


Ilow such a noble and high-minded race as the 
Spaniards can tolerate anything so low, so 
brutal, and so vulgar as bull-fighting.” 

“War as the Spaniards carry it on is even 
more brutal than bull -fighting,” said a stran- 
ger behind them, speaking in well-modulated 
tones without the slightest accent. 

Winnie started and turned quickly, ex- 
pecting to recognize a fellow-countryman, 
but she saw instead an undersized, frail man 
of the Spanish type, but of still darker com- 
plexion. His eyes were preternaturally 
bright, his face very thin and careworn ; his 
hands, with which he gestured as he spoke, 
were those of a musician — expressive, mobile, 
and nervous. 

“ Pardon me,” he said ; “ I could not help 
joining in your conversation. I saw that 
you were Americans, and we love America ; 
all our hope is in her.” 

Winnie laughed. “ You feel more kindly 
to our country than most Spaniards,” she 
said. 

“ But I am not a Spaniard. Heaven for- 
bid ! I am ” He paused and glanced sus- 

piciously around, but no one was near for 
the moment but Antonio, who was absorbed 


206 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

in drawing the plan of a fortress in the sand 
for a child who had asked this favor. 

I am a Cuban,” almost hissed the 
stranger. 

“ Then why are you here ? ” asked Winnie. 

I should think you would be at home fight- 
ing for independence.” 

I am fighting for it here,” he replied. 

“ That must be a very dangeimis mission,” 
said Winnie. 

“ It is the most dangerous of all ; not only 
for myself, but for my friends, I dare not 
speak longer with you lest we may be ob- 
served and you be suspected.” 

“ I am not afraid,” Winnie replied fear- 
lessly ; and you interest me very much. 
Tell me about the state of affairs in Cuba.” 

Not now ; another time, perhaps, should 
we meet again,” and, touching his hat, he 
glided away. 

“Right there,” said Antonio to a child, 
“ is the dungeon of your castle, where you 
must pop all the bad spies and enemies of 
Spain,” and, dropping the stick with which he 
had been making the drawing, he too disap- 
peared. 

“ Of all things,” said Winnie, “ wasn’t that 


SEVILLE. 


207 


the queerest adventure we have had yet ? I 
wonder who he is ? ” 

^‘Someone remarkable, I am sure,” Tib 
replied. “ Someone quite out of the ordinary. 
I studied him very carefully, but I could not 
make him out at all. At first I thought he 
might have been a sailor, for he was tattooed. 
When he was gesticulating in that excitable 
way his cuff fell back, and I saw a coiled ser- 
pent tattooed about his wrist with the head 
reaching up into the palm. He saw that I 
noticed it, for he clinched his fingers over it 
and thrust that hand into his pocket. It is 
certainly very queer.” 

They talked of the incident for some time, 
and then Tib opened her sketch book and 
began, as she had often done before, to sketch 
the Giralda. 

It is the charm of charms of Seville for 
me,” she said. “ Only think, that tower was 
the object by which we first recognized the 
city on our approach, and the one which 
must have remained longest visible to the 
vanquished and retreating Arab army.” 

“ I am glad they copied it in New York,” 
said Winnie. Many a poor street boy who 
never can hope to see Seville can stand by 


208 WITCH WJ^NIE IN SPAIN 

the fountain in Madison Square and have his 
mind opened to ideas of beauty in architect- 
ure. I think St. Gaudens’ graceful Diana an 
improvement as a vane on this statue of Faith, 
which is the occasion of so many jokes at the 
expense of Seville, that confesses its faith 
as inconstant as a weather-cock. It has 
veered from Jupiter to Mahomet, from Ma- 
homet to Mary ; let us hope that the next 
breeze may turn it toward a purer and more 
rational religion.” 

The belfry is a Christian addition,” said 
Winnie. “Around it runs the appropriate in- 
scription, ^ Nomen Domini fortissima turris.’ 
The Moors worshiped their tower ; it was 
the first astronomical observatory in Europe. 
The muezzin towers of Morocco are modeled 
after it ; they reproduced it in their exile as 
nearly as their resources would permit.” 

“ Bayard Taylor thinks it more perfect 
than the Campanile of Florence or the tower 
of San Marco at Venice.” 

Dusk deepened into shadow, and the noble 
outlines of the Giralda were lost in the dark- 
ness. The clear sparkle of the stars 
answered the more lurid signals of the gas 


SEVILLE. 


209 


jets in the park, when suddenly tlieir atten- 
tion was attracted by a luminous object high 
in mid-air — a golden globe, then a green, a 
ruby, and a purple one in quick succession, 
then a circle of smaller topaz lights and two 
blazing diamond solitaires with sapphire pen- 
dants. They were arranged too regularly to 
be meteors, and yet they seemed too high in 
the heavens to be any species of fireworks. 

What is it ? Oh ! what is it ? ” exclaimed 
Mrs. Smith. 

It looks like a magnificent jeweled 
chandelier hung from the vault above,” said 
Winnie. 

It is the lighting of the dome of the 
Giralda,” explained Tib. It is so dark that 
we do not see the tower, and the lights have 
all the effect of an illumination in mid-air.” 

There had been a little hush of admiration 
in the crowd about them ; and now, though 
the spectacle was a familiar one to everyone, 
exclamations of delight broke forth on every 
hand. 

The great bell in the tower clanged the 
hour, surprising them by its lateness, but still 
they lingered. 

“ There is only one poem that paints it all,” 


210 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


said Tib. “ I learned it by heart long ago, 
and before I ever saw the Giralda I used to 
dream of it and weave unwritten legends of 
the vanished Caliphate. Listen. It might 
have been written an hour ago : 

“ ‘ In the Plaza I hear the sounds 
Of guitar and castanet: 

Although it is early yet, 

The dancers are on their rounds. 

Softly the sunlight falls 
On the slim Giralda tower, 

That now peals forth the hour 
O’er broken ramparts and walls. 

Ah, what glory and gloom 
In this Arab-Spanish town ! 

What masonry, golden brown. 

And hung with tendril and bloom 1 
Place of forgotten kings! 

With fountains that never play, 

And gardens where day by day 
The lonely cicada sings. 

Traces are everywhere 
Of the dusky race that came 
And passed like a sudden flame, 

Leaving their sighs in the air.’ ” 


CHAPTER X. 


HILAKIO LOPEZ. 

With their prows turned toward the tropics, their arma- 
ments in place; 

With their cannons primed for action, their engines 
primed for chase ; 

With a stern determination on each bronzed seaman’s 
face. 

Our ships are sailing out. 


It is not for prey or plunder our ships have gone to sea; 
It is not that our loved country should greater, richer 
be. 

That, with flag nailed at the masthead,— as sign of 
victory, — 

Our ships are sailing out. 


For pelf or power? Nay, bounteous Heaven! for we 
are rich and great ; 

Naught have we now to ask of Thee to aggrandize our • 
state. 

To rescue men from want and woe, from vengeful, fiend- 
ish hate. 


Our ships are sailing out. 
211 


212 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


We have heard the cries of anguish from a neighbor at 
our door ; 

We have seen her winnowed, trampled, like corn on 
threshing-floor: 

To lift from her the despot’s heel, to grant her life and 
store. 

Our ships are sailing out. 

Oh, Lord of hosts! no longer could our wakened senses 
be 

Half-blind to sights, or dulled to sounds, of human 
misery. 

To feed, to clothe, uplift, make whole — to set a people 
free — 

Our ships are sailing out. 

— Mrs. S. a. Brock Putnam, 

in The Home Journal. ' 



HILE the girls 
were leading their 
charmed existence 
in Seville, the storm- 
cloud was lowerins: 
more heavily. The 
great body of 
Americans were op- 
posed to war, and 
for a long time 
hoped that it might 
be averted, but they could not be blind to 
the sufferings of the Cubans, and when the 


IIILABIO LOPEZ. 


213 


endeavors of the President •through diplo- 
macy to induce Spain to grant to Cuba a 
government of her own proved unavailing, 
Congress placed in his hands the power to 
intervene with arms. Europeans have found 
it very difficult to appreciate our real mo- 
tives, and have persisted in the belief that 
the United States entered upon the war be- 
cause it desired Cuba. This was farthest 
from our thoughts. Even the cry for revenge 
for the sinking of the Maine was not the real 
keynote. To the great majority of our peo- 
ple the war was one for humanity, and the 
most disinterested that the world has known. 

The unanswerable argument in its favor 
which reconciled the conscience of our people 
to this extreme measure, and confirmed the 
wavering Congress, was made by Senator 
Pi-octor of Vermont, who, on March 17, 1898, 
made a statement to the Senate of the United 
States of his observations during a recent 
trip through the island of Cuba. Every 
element of sensationalism had been studiously 
eliminated from his assertions ; calm and dis- 
passionate, his I’emarks did not bear the 
slightest evidence of an effort to arouse the 
public mind. The impression which his 


214 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


address made upon the Senate was char- 
acterized by another Senator. “ It is,” he 
said, “just as if Proctor had held up his right 
hand and sworn to it.” From this statement 
I make a few brief extracts : 

There are six provinces in Cuba, eacli, with the ex- 
ception of Matanzas, extending the whole width of the 
island and having an equal sea front on the north and 
south. My observations were confined to the four 
western provinces, about one-half the island. The two 
eastern ones are in the hands of the insurgents, and are 
spoken of as Cuba Libre. In Havana, the great city and 
capital of the island, except for squads of (Spanish) 
soldiers, one sees little sign of war — but outside Havana 
all is’changed. It is not peace, nor is it war. It is deso- 
lation and distress, misery and starvation. Every town 
and village is surrounded by a trocha (trench) with a 
barbed-wire fence on- the outer side. These irochas 
have at intervals blockhouses loopholed for musketry, 
with a guard of from two to ten soldiers each. Their 
purpose is to keep the reconcentrados in as w^ell as to 
keep the insurgents out. From all the surrounding 
country the people have been driven into these towns 
and held to subsist as they can. They are virtually 
prison yards. With the exception of the guard along 
the railroad track, there is no human life or habitation 
between these fortified towns throughout the four west- 
ern provinces. There are no domestic animals or crops. 
It is concentration and desolation. This is the “ pacified ” 
condition of the western provinces. All the country 
people by “Weyler’s order were driven in, and these 
are the reconcentrados. When they reached the towns 
they were allowed to build huts of palm leaves in the va- 


HILARIO LOPEZ. 


215 


cant places, and were left to live if they could. The huts 
have no floor, no furniture. Torn from their homes, 
with foul earth, foul air, foul water, and foul food or 
none, what wonder tliat one-half have died and that one- 
quarter of the living- are so diseased that they cannot be 
saved! I have been told by one of our consuls that 
people have been found dead in the markets, where they 
had crawled, hoping to get stray bits of food from the 
hucksters. Two hundred thousand have died within a 
few months past within these Spanish forts from actual 
starvation and diseases caused by insufflcient and im- 
im proper food. 

Miss Barton and her assistants are excellently fitted 
for their duties. The American people may be assured 
that their bounty will reach the sufferer, witli the least 
possible cost and in the best manner. When will the 
need for this help end? Not until peace comes, and the 
reconcentrados can go back to their country, rebuild 
their homes, and until they can be free from molestation 
in so doing. Until then the American people must care 
for them. 


Few of the Spanish people realized the 
horrors that were permitted in Cuba under 
the name of war. General Weyler, on being 
asked if he had been cruel, replied, ‘‘'War 
is not a picnic, and I have never wrapped 
my bullets in cotton in order that they 
should not hurt.” 

The Spanish gentleman is honorable 
according to his code ; high-bred, courteous, 
magnanimous, brave ; and he accepts the 


216 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


fortunes of war when it turns against him, 
preferring to go down with his ships rather 
than to surrender — but he does not inquire 
too curiously into the methods employed by 
his generals to secure victory. 

The first revelation of what was really 
meant by the term ‘Opacification of Cuba” 
was brought to Winnie by Van, who arrived 
in Seville the day after the encounter with 
the Cuban in the Alameda. 

Van had received Winnie’s letter while 
waiting in the hope of hearing from her at 
Gibraltar; 

‘0 You see,” he said, I had taken the pre- 
caution while at Genoa to write to Venice to 
have my mail forwarded, and I let one 
steamer sail for America, believing you 
would let me know where you were — so 
here I am, but only for a few days, for Miss 
Clara Barton, whom I knew in America, has 
written me of the Bed Cross work in Cuba, 
and I must go. No crusader who took the 
cross in the olden days had so divine a call. 
You cannot imagine the suft'ering. Even Miss 
Barton’s calm statement of the horrors which 
she lias witnessed, of the need for more 
workers, might not have appealed to me so 


HILABIO LOPEZ. 


217 


vividly, had I not during the past few days 
been thrown into the company of a young 
Cuban, Hilario Lopez, who is on his way to 
Madrid to appeal to the Queen in behalf of 
his people. It made my blood boil when he 
told me of his personal wrongs, and he is 
only ah example of what every patriotic 
Cuban has endured. 

^‘The Lopez family have held the same 
plantations for years. At first they were 
rented of an absentee Spanish landlord who 
held an old claim for them from the Crown. 
But although the improvements instituted 
by the Lopez family have multiplied many 
times the value of the estates, he has paid 
far more than their present value in rents ; 
and under Cuban laws the title of the 
Spanish claimant has lapsed. They will 
be recognized as belonging to Lopez if the 
present insurrection is successful, and ought 
to be by Spanish law as well. But this is 
the least of his injuries. Lopez’ brothers 
joined the insurgent army, but he himself 
was an Autonomist and never lifted his hand 
against Spain. He had gone to New Yo]-k 
on business, and while he was away the in- 
surgent army was driven into the eastern 


218 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


part of Cuba and the Lopez estates were 
devastated again and again. His brothers 
were known to be with the insurgents, and 
the statement of his wife that he was absent 
on business was not believed. His cattle 
and horses were carried off, his warehouses 
pillaged, his crops destroyed, and finally the 
buildings were ,all burned and his family 
driven into the nearest trocha as reconcen- 
trados. Lopez heard of this and returned to 
Havana, to be arrested and thrown into 
prison. He was able to prove his innocence, 
and after a long time was released, but dur- 
ing his imprisonment his wife and his chil- 
dren died one by one. His wife lived from 
force of will, till the last child died upon her 
breast, and then she too meekly closed her 
eyes. One sister alone was rescued by the 
Red Cross and lies in their hospital. It was 
she who told Lopez of the fate of the others. 

^‘Then he came to Spain, not to hunt 
down General Weyler and obtain revenge, 
as was reported, but to lay all these outrages 
before the Queen. 

^ It cannot be,’ he says continually, ^ that 
she knows what is done in the name of 
Spain, for she is a gentle and noble-hearted 


EILARIO LOPEZ. 


219 


woman.’ He respects Sagasta, too, and will 
seek an interview with him on his arrival in 
Madrid.” 

How strange all this is ! ” Winnie com- 
mented, and then she told Van her side of 
the story, and showed him the papers which 
Don Juan had sent him establishing Van’s 
right to the Lopez estates. 

Van smiled. “You see why I could never 
accept them,” he said simply. 

“Yes,” Winnie replied, her cheeks glow- 
ing with enthusiasm ; “ I see you think that 
they ought really to belong to Hilario Lopez.” 

“ Yes, but while they can never be mine, 
it is possibly very fortunate that matters 
have turned out iu this strange way, for 
I will go up to Cordova, see this Senor de 
Silva, and try to enlighten his mind on this 
matter. He is doubtless in a position to help 
Lopez, if I can only interest him.” 

“I don’t believe there is much hope of 
that,” Winnie replied, “for Don Juan regards 
this Cuban as a miscreant.” 

“He would not if he could see him. I 
will take him wdth me.” 

“ Why, is he in Seville ? ” 

“Yes, he came on the day after I left 


220 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

Gibraltar. He would not travel with me for 
fear of compromising me. He gave me his 
address, but at the same time warned me 
not to call upon him, as it is a dangerous 
thing to hold communication with a political 
suspect. He is doing a daring thing in com- 
ing to Spain — and he is not likely to succeed 
in his undertaking ; but, all the same, I shall 
help him all I can, and will leave with him 
for Cordova to-night.” 

‘^That is right. Van. I am proud of you. 
I don’t wonder you believe in him. I do, too ; 
and, do you know, although he left after you 
did, in some mysterious way he arrived here 
before you, for I believe we saw him last 
night. Has he a serpent tattooed on his left 
wrist ? ” 

‘‘‘ The very man ! It is a pity he can be so 
easily identified. I will see if I can burn oft* 
that tatooing with a little caustic. He may 
find it awkward some day.” 

Winnie and Dr. Van Silver continued 
their conversation until almost time for the 
train to leave for Cordova, and it is needless 
to relate that Hilario Lopez was not the only 
topic which they found of interest. But 
Cuba was uppermost in their minds. 


HILARIO LOPEZ. 


221 


shall follow you to America as soon as 
I can persuade the others to leave,” Winnie 
promised ; “ and if the Eed Cross has need of 
me, I too will go to Cuba. I do think that 
a physician’s profession is the noblest of all. 
I am so glad you chose it, and prouder of 
you for the stand you have taken on this 
question than I was when I found that your 
family was related to Velasquez. No, Van; 
whatever may the respective merits of the 
pen and the sword, the pill box is mightier 
than the paint brush.” 

Winnie was eager to go to Cordova with 
Van in order to assist in persuading Don 
Juan to espouse the cause of Hilario Lopez, 
but this it was decided she would better not 
do. She wrote a letter to Senor de Silva 
urging Van’s views, and that evening Van set 
out for Cordova in company with the Cuban. 
He returned the next day greatly dis- 
appointed. Don Juan had received him 
politely, but on being introduced to Hilario 
had ordered that young man from the house. 
Nothing that Van said pacified him, but, on 
the contrary, he grew more and more angry, 
and demanded the return of the credentials 
which he had given Winnie for Van, asserting 


222 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

that no one with such sentiments could be 
even remotely connected with his family. 

On returning to the railroad station Van 
had a brief interview with Hilario Lopez. 
“ I thank you,” said the latter, “ for what you 
have tried to do for me. It is an inauspicious 
beginning of my mission, but I shall not give 
up yet. I shall go on to Madrid now and 
see Senor Sagasta and, if possible, the Queen. 
If I fail there, I have still a hope. Spain is 
on the eve of revolution. I shall wait in 
hiding until another hand holds the reins of 
power.” 

They parted with a cordial handclasp, and 
Van promised to find Lopez’ sister in Havana. 

^‘And now,” Van said to Winnie, “send 
back all the papers to the Senor.” 

“Would it not be better, since they are 
really yours, to keep them until you reach 
Cuba, and there formally relinquish your 
rights in favor of Hilario Lopez ? ” 

“Before this war is over the Spaniards 
will have no rights in Cuba, and after what 
has happened to-day Lopez is as unwilling 
as I am to receive any favors from the de 
Silvas.” 

“Do you really think,” Winnie asked, 


HILARIO LOPEZ. 


223 


“that our nation is disinterested enough to 
enter upon a war with Spain solely for the 
sake of championing the cause of the dis- 
tressed Cubans, with no motives of self- 
interest or personal wrongs to revenge ? ” 

“If not,” Van replied, “then I believe we 
shall be scourged into it. If we are not 
generous enough to strike a blow for the free- 
dom of others, then God may make the 
issue touch us in some vital point, and the 
nation will rise at the call of the lower 
motive of self-defense or revenge.” 

As he spoke there was a clamor without. 
Some exciting news was being cried upon the 
street, and Mr. Smith came in with a news- 
paper in his hand. 

“ Come, translate this for me ! ” he cried. 
“ That imbecile,” pointing to Antonio, whose 
face was blanched with fear, “ either cannot 
or will not.” 

Van took the journal from his hands and 
read the news of the destruction of the 
Maine, 


CHAPTER XL 


CADIZ AND LA RABIDA. 


Thou shield of that faith whicli in Spain we revere, 
Thou scourge of each foeman who dares to draw near ; 
Whom the Son of that God who the elements tames 
Called child of the thunder, immortal St. James! 

“ When terrible wars had nigh wasted our force. 

All bright midst the battle we saw thee on horse, 

Fierce scattVing the hosts whom their fury proclaims 
To be warriors of Islam, victorious St. James. 


“ Beneath thy direction stretch’d prone at thy feet. 

With hearts low and humble, this day we entreat 
Thou wilt strengthen the hope which enlivens our frames 
That thou wilt go with us, victorious St. James.” 



ERY dark were the forebodings 
which forced themselves upon 
our American tourists with the 
terrible new^s of the sinking of 
the Maine. There were 
not alone the horror and 
grief occasioned by the 
sudden death of so many 
of their gallant country- 
men (though at this time 
they did not know that 
any of their friends were 
224 





’f: 

—4 


* 






CADIZ AND LA RABIDA. 


225 


among tlie number), but to these was added 
the dread of more grief and horror to come — 
the fear that now our ship of state could 
not be held back by the firm hand at the 
wheel from the tremendous current which 
was sweeping her toward war. 

Mr. Roseveldt immediately decided to re- 
turn to America with his family and to set 
out at once in company with Van. Mr. 
Smith might have made the same decision 
were it not that he was anxious to see Angelo 
before leaving and to make the amende hon- 
orable. Winnie was torn in two directions, 
but finally decided to remain with Tib. 
With her happy optimism she could not share 
Mr. Rose veldt’s fears that even now there 
would really be war between the United 
States and Spain, and she felt an intense in- 
terest in seeing that the little romance whose 
beginning she had watched in Venice should 
end as she wished. Tib and Angelo have 
shown such stupendous stupidity in manag- 
ing their own affairs,” she confided to Van, 
“ that I dare not leave them. Then, too, Mr. 
Smith is the merest infant ; he will get him- 
self lost again if I do not stay and pilot him 
through this tour.” 


226 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

Van agreed with Winnie’s estimate of the 
value of her own services, and willingly 
acquiesced in her stay, believing with her 
that the delay would not be long. 

The Rose veldts and Van determined to 
sail from Gibraltar and to return to that port 
by way of Cadiz, and the entire party decided 
to accompany them as far as the latter city. 

They took the little steamer just below 
the Golden Tower, one of the landmarks of 
Seville, and so named because the gold that 
Columbus brought back from the New World 
was stored within it. The boat dropped 
slowly down the lazy Guadalquivir, hardly 
outstripping the promenaders in the walks 
of Las Delicias, a charming park which 
skirted the river for some distance ; then it 
crept slowly along between flats as level as 
Holland and as miasmatic as the Campagna, 
but with beautiful hazy effects when the sun 
shot through the mist. This is the great 
sherry region, and they were served to golden 
Manzanillo with their luncheon of red mul- 
let, which the Moors call the sultan of fishes. 

Winnie and Van leaned on the rail, staring 
at the slowly moving landscape without 
seeing it. To them the moments of this 


CADIZ AND LA RABIDA. 227 

their last day together were slipping away 
all too rapidly, but Winnie would not allow 
this thought to spoil their present happiness. 

I feel that it is almost wrong for us to be 
so happ3^, Van,” she said, ^‘when I look at 
Tib bearing up so bravely and cheerfully all 
through this long misunderstanding which 
has parted her from Angelo.” 

But surely she knows now the reason 
that he would not speak. He could not 
while he believed that the curse of inherited 
insanity rested upon him. Just as soon as 
that was proved untrue he set out with me 
to find her. I never saw a man more genu- 
inely in love ; he was the most stupid com- 
panion I ever had. He could talk of nothing 
but her talent, her goodness, and her love- 
liness.” 

Of course, you never bored him by ex- 
patiating about me ! ” There was the least 
spice of pique in Winnie’s voice. 

Well, now I come to think of it, I did 
try to cap his remarks at first. But I am 
sure I could not have been such a fool as he 
was. Why, he thinks her absolutely perfect ! 
I became so exasperated one night in Genoa 
that I gave him a piece of my mind. I said : 


228 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


^ Now, Zanelli, see here : lam very happily en- 
gaged, and yet I do not consider that Winnie 
is perfect. I can see that she has a quick 
temper.’ ” 

Winnie’s eyes flashed fire. ^^And you 
actually detailed my faults to Angelo ? ” 

“No, I didn’t detail them, but I told him 
you were full of faults, and that they were 
every one of them charming, and I could not 
understand how a man of his sense could 
believe that anyone so much less attractive 
than you as Miss Smith must seem to the 
most unprejudiced observer could be fault- 
less, or, if so, could find such a priggish young 
person interesting.” 

Winnie laughed. “ It is selfish of us to 
talk foolishness here. Go right over and tell 
Tib all the absurd things that Angelo said 
about her.” 

“ Why should I ? She knows the state of 
idiocy to which he is reduced, doesn’t she ? ” 

“ Yes, she knows, but all the same it will 
do her good to be told of it. Do you sup- 
pose he will appear before long and tell her 
himself ? ” 

“ Not a doubt of it. He wrote me to join 
him in Seville, and he will be there before 


CADIZ AND LA RABIDA. 229 

long. Be sure to leave a letter for him at 
your banker’s when you go to Granada. It 
is just like him to go hunting all over Spain 
for Mr. and Mrs. Smith when he might be 
enjoying the society of his perfect one at 
this veiy moment.” 

Tib thinks that is very admirable in him. 
Her mother has told her bow attentive 
Angelo was to her — and how respectful to 
Mr. Smith, and it has made Tib care more 
for him than any amount of attention to her- 
self. And that is why I care for you, Van : 
because you are willing to leave me now that 
duty calls.” 

So they talked on; but it is the most 
dishonorable of all things to listen to lovers’ 
conversations — and we will emulate the con- 
sideration of their friends, and keep a dis- 
creet distance until Cadiz appears on the 
horizon, a cameo carved from alabaster set 
against a background of lapis lazuli. 

Closer acquaintance showed that the 
whitewashed houses were not so dazzlingly 
clean as they had seemed, but it was a most 
interesting city nevertheless. As they 
strolled along the sea-wall looking at the 
shipping Van said to Winnie: I am on 


230 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

the lookout for a priest that Hilario Lopez 
said I would find fishing here to-day. Lopez 
was to have met him, but decided to go on to 
Madrid instead. I am charged to tell him 
where Lopez can be found. Ah ! there is 
my man ; that is the sign — the long cane with 
which he is fishing is painted with blue rings. 
You would better join the others and let me 
speak to him alone.” 

Van approached the priest and remarked : 
“ It must require a great deal of patience, 
Keverend Father, to fish from the quay. I 
should not think the fish would venture so 
near the shore.” 

The priest turned and replied pleasantly : 
^‘We have a proverb, ^La paciencia de un 
pescador de cana,’ meaning that there is no 

patience so great But see, I have just 

caught a San Pedro, the very kind that the 
great Apostle caught with the tribute money 
in its mouth. A sign, my son, that fish as 
well as men sometimes venture into dangerous 
places.” He looked keenly at Van as he 
spoke, and each understood that there was 
more under their conversation than seemed. 

There is a fellow who has just slipped 
the hook,” Van replied. ‘‘ Some men, as well 


CADIZ AND LA RABID A. 231 

as fish, escape where one would imagine they 
would be surely caught.” 

At this juncture Winnie, who had obedi- 
ently walked on, could not forbear looking 
back, and exclaimed, ^‘Why, it is Father 
Tolo!” 

It was indeed the good priest, who was 
delighted to meet them. He shook hands 
with each of the party, and gave them the 
latest news of all his parishioners at St. Jean 
de Kampoua. He was sorry to hear that the 
Kose veldts were on the eve of embarkation, 
but remarked with pleasure the animation 
that shone in Milly’s face. So the unpleas- 
ant vision that you saw as you tried to cross 
the bridal bridge was not an evil omen, after 
all ! I see — I understand — there is someone 
waiting in America, and there will be a 
wedding there after your formal American 
fashion wdthout any of our hearty Basque 
customs.” 

He then spoke with the deepest regret of 
the blowing up of the Mainej adding, “ But 
no one can believe that Spain could have had 
the infamy to do such a thing as that.” 

No ! ” Winnie replied warmly. No one 
who knows the Spanish people as we do. 


232 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

There can never be war between us on that 
account.” 

Father Tolo shook his head gravely. “ I 
have seen wars declared for no reason, and 
friends changed to foes when tliere was no 
enmity in their hearts for each other. Some- 
times I think that precept of our common 
religion, ^ Love your enemies,’ the very easiest 
command to obey. I have never been able 
to hate mine, not when I knew them per- 
sonally, and sometimes this has made me act 
with great inconsistency.” 

He unjointed his fishing rod, shaking it 
down into a walking stick ; gave his few fish 
to a boy who had been angling at his side, 
and walked about with them for the 
remainder of the day, showing them the 
places of interest of the town, among others 
the last painting of Murillo’s in the chapel of 
the Capuchins — the Marriage of St. Catherine. 

I have always wondered,” said Father 
Tolo, why the Infant Christ did not stretch 
out his hand and hold Murillo, as he stepped 
backward on the scaffold to view his almost 
completed painting, instead of allowing him 
to fall and receive the injuries from which he 
died in Seville. Perhaps it was because there ^ 


CADIZ AND LA RABID A. 


233 


was no reward on earth glorious enough to 
bestow for such a work.” 

Father Tolo took them also to the Car- 
men where Admiral Gravina is buried, who 
commanded the Spanish fleet at Trafalgar 
and died soon after NelsOn. He was told of 
his enemy’s death and, instead of exulting, 
said, am going to join the greatest man 
the world has ever produced.” 

Some Spanish man-of-war’s men were 
kneeling before his tomb, and scowled at the 
Americans as they passed out. One of them 
spoke to Father Tolo in the street. 

We have just sworn to St. James,” he 
said, in case America declares war against 
us, never to return to Cadiz unless victorious. 
We will go down with our ships, but we 
will not surrender.” 

Father Tolo sighed. ‘‘Cadiz is a monu- 
ment to the bravery of our navy, but not to 
its success,” he said. “Three hundred and 
two years ago Lord Essex sacked the city 
and took thirteen of our ships of war and 
forty South American galleons. It was near 
here — at Puerto Keal, in 1587 — that Drake 
destroyed more than one hundred French 
and Spanish men-of-war ; and not far away 


234 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


are Trafalgar and Gibraltar, nor can we for- 
get our Armada. We have learned our les- 
son well ; we Spaniards know bow to die.” 

To draw bis thoughts away from this 
gloomy subject, Tib asked Father Tolo if 
there was any particular reason why the 
sailors should have addressed their prayers to 
St. James other than that as a fisherman 
he might have been familiar with the sea. 

“He is our saint,” Father Tolo 

replied proudly; “ and you, of course, know 
that after he was decapitated he sailed to 
Spain, and on thirty-eight different occasions 
single-handed in battle slew sixty thousand 
Moors.” 

Tib was able to keep her countenance, but 
Winnie’s face showed her incredulity. 

“ Why did you start Father Tolo on that 
subject ? ” she said to Tib when they were 
alone. 

“I had forgotten the Spaniard’s faith in 
Santiago,” Tib replied, “ but now a stray 
scrap from Southey occurs to me : 

“ Large tales of St. James the Spaniards tell, 
Munchausen tells no larger, 

Of how he used to fight the Moors 
Upon a milk-white charger. 


CADIZ AND LA DABIDA. 235 

And still they worship him in Spain 
And believe in him with might and main; 
Santiago there they call him, 

And if anyone then had doubted these tales, 
They’d an Inquisition to maul him.” 

They called at the university to see Luiz 
Garcia, but learned that he had joined a com- 
pany of volunteers and was away drilling. 

They spent the night at a comfortable 
hostelry, and the next morniDg Mr. and Mrs. 
Rose veldt, Milly, and Van took the coastiug 
steamer for Gibraltar. The others had 
thought of returning to Seville as they had 
come, but, as Mr. Smith had expressed him- 
self interested in looking up localities con- 
nected with the history of Columbus, 
Father Tolo explained how they could make 
a slight detour and take in Palos and the 
convent of La Rabida — an excursion upon 
which he would be pleased to accompany 
them. They left all the arrangements of 
this trip in the hands of Father Tolo, who 
secured a felucca^ or rakish-looking fishing 
boat with picturesque lateen sails, whose 
owner agreed to take them to Palos for a 
reasonable sum, never dreaming, as Father 
Tolo bargained with him, that he was dealing 
with Americans. 


236 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


It was from Palos that Columbus sailed on 
the 3d of August, 1492, for the discovery of 
America, and to Palos he returned trium- 
phant seven months later. To Palos too 
came Cortes after the conquest of Mexico 
and Pizarro before his expedition to Peru. 

Father Tolo hired a lumbering open car- 
riage at Palos, and they drove three miles to 
the Convent of Santa Maria la Rabida. The 
aspect of this convent, as well as of the 
caravels in which Columbus sailed, has 
been made familiar to us by their reproduc- 
tion at the World’s Fair in Chicago. 

Winnie said it seemed as if the blue ocean 
were Lake Michigan, that the Court of Honor 
must be just at the left and the Midway 
Plaisance around the headland. La Rabida 
was originally a fortress of the Moors, erected 
by them in the eleventh century, and given 
to the Franciscans when the Moors were 
driven out of Spain. 

''It was here,” said Father Tole, "that 
Columbus, rejected and despairing, stopped 
to beg for bread and water for himself and 
his little boy. The Prior of the Convent Juan 
Perez de Marchena listened intelligently to 
his plans and did not consider them vision- 


CADIZ AND LA RABID A. 


237 


aiy. He entertained Columbus as his guest 
for months, and pressed his cause before 
Queen Isabella, whose confessor he had once 
been, and it was through his influence that 
the queen reconsidered her refusal, and that 
Columbus was able to send back to the con- 
vent the following joyous letter : 

“ Our Lord God has heard the prayers of his servants. 
The wise and virtuous Isabel, touched by the grace of 
Heaven, has kindly listened to this poor man's words. 
All has turned out well. I have read to them our plan; 
it has been accepted, and I have been called to the court 
to state the proper means for carrying out the designs of 
Providence. My courage swims in a sea of consolation, 
and my spirit rises in praise to .God. Come as soon as 
you can; the Queen looks for you, and I much more 
than she. 

“The grace of God be with you, and may Our Lady 
of Rabida bless you. 

“ I am glad to know,” continued Father 
Tolo, that we priests have had something to 
do with the great deeds of the world. How 
much will never be known, for, like the work 
of women, it is in great part done through 
others ; but it is our work nevertheless, for 
^qui facit per alium facit per se.’ Father 
Juan de Marchena gave Columbus his bless- 
ing on the shores of Palos w^hen he sailed 


238 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

away. It was Friday, so that the superstition 
that it is unlucky to begin any work on that 
day is unfounded, and Columbus chose it 
because it was the day of the Redemption 
and also anniversary of the delivery of the 
Holy Sepulcher by Grodfrey de Bouillon.” 

After inspecting the paintings in Colum- 
bus’ room, some of which were scenes in this 
voyage and interviews with Ferdinand and 
Isabella by modern historical painters, and 
others more or less authentic portraits of 
Columbus, of Isabella, and of the good Prior, 
our travelers continued their excursion to 
Huelva, where they spent the night at the 
Hotel Colon, which, to their surprise, 
they found to be the best in Spaiu. The 
Rio Tinto Mining Company, two railroads, 
and the Rothschilds have united in building 
this magnificent resort. 

Four blocks of buildings near the bathing 
beach inclose a garden of some two acres. 
This garden is charming in its tropical vege- 
tation, its fountains, its retired walks, and its 
cool, cloistered porticoes, where they were 
served their after-dinner coffee and sat late 
into the beautiful moonlit night. 

The proprieter showed them through the 


CADIZ AND LA BABIDA. 


230 


palatial public rooms, frescoed by skilled 
artists, with chimney pieces of Dresden 
porcelain, the fourteen suites of princely 
state apartments fitted up with every 
modern appliance of luxury, and the ball- 
room capable of entertaining a thousand 
people. It was very surprising to find such 
a luxurious hotel in such an out-of-the-way 
place. Winnie objected to it as entirely too 
American in its comforts, and, on finding that 
Seville could be reached by rail or by an 
antiquated diligence, she unhesitatingly 
clamo]‘ed for the old-fashioned vehicle. 

On the way Father Tolo confided to them 
that he too was going on to Granada and 
would be glad of their company. Winnie 
was not surpi’ised, for Van had told her that 
Granada w6uld be the place where Hilario 
Lopez would seek asylum in case he was 
not successful in his mission to Sagasta. 
“I have an acquaintance there,” he had 
said to Van, ^^a Jew — a dealer in curios 
— who is a great traveler. Tell Father 
Tolo that he can find news of me at his little 
shop in the Zacatin.” This was the message 
which Father Tolo had expected when Van 
had found him fishing on the quay. It was 


240 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

not safe to send too mucli information by 
letters which might be intercepted, and 
Father Tolo bad simply known that either 
Hilario Lopez would meet him there or that 
a messenger who would know him by his 
peculiar fishing-rod would bring him w^ord 
of his whereabouts. 

The letter which had made the quay at 
Cadiz the rendezvous, had, in fact, been 
read by Sergeant Cardoza and resealed and 
sent to the priest. All that day, from the 
window of a little wine shop opposite the 
quay, the sergeant had w^atched the priest 
fishing. When the American spies,” 
with their friends, joined Father Tolo 
the heart of the detective swelled with 
exultation. How beautifully they had 
walked into the trap ! But his triumph was 
not quite complete, for where was the Cuban, 
Hilario Lopez ? He at first thought that 
Van might be the man in disguise, but he 
soon saw that this was impossible, for Van 
did not in any way answer the description. 
He was blond and large, and the Cuban 
could not have changed his stature or the 
color of his eyes, nor have rid himself of 
the telltale tattooing, and as Van moved his 


CADIZ AND LA DABIDA. 241 

hands Sergeant Cardoza could see with the 
aid of the field glass with which he studied 
that his wrists were unscarred. As the 
Americans moved away, the hyena followed 
them at a distance and at the chapel of the 
Capuchins found Antonio guarding the um- 
brellas and handbags just outside the door. 
A gold piece was slipped from the ser- 
geant’s hand into that of the treacherous 
valet, and Antonio delivered himself of 
everything he knew. 

Yes, a Cuban had met them in the 
Alameda at Seville, not the Cuban of the 
Tower of the Magians at Toledo, but an- 
other who was just as likely to be the man 
that the sergeant wished to find as the 
sorcerer of the Magians’ Tower, who had not 
appeared ; and the sergeant need not curse, 
for it was possible that he had not lost him. 
It was only day before yesterday, and he had 
listened and knew where he had gone. This 
friend of the family had taken him to the 
house of Don Juan Perez de Silva at Cor- 
dova, and had left him there, returning with- 
out him.” 

The sergeant satisfied himself by search- 
ing questions that Antonio was speaking the 


242 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

truth ; and, bidding him keep a close watch 
on the movements of the Americans, he set 
out at once on the track of his more im- 
portant quarry. 

Antonio was a snake in the grass, but this 
was the first time that his information had 
led toward the discovery of the true Cuban 
or had done any harm to those whom he was 
so suspiciously watching. On the contrary, 
he had already served them one good turn 
in guiding Mr. and Mrs. Smith to Seville ; 
and as the Huelva diligence lumbered into 
the city it was his sharp eyes that detected 
Angelo, bag in hand, walking rapidly toward 
the railway station, having just ascertained, 
at the hotel that Tib had left Seville. 

'Not a word said Antonio, but, although 
the diligence was dashing through the streets 
at its utmost speed, the driver bent on making 
an effective entree, he dropped from its top, 
landed like a cat, and. was off like a shot, 
overtaking Angelo and gasping out the infor- 
mation that the Senoritas whom he sought 
were here. For Antonio had reasoned in 
that brief glance that if the sorcerer of the 
Magians’ Tower were after all no conspirator, 
but only an ordinary man extraordinarily in 


CADIZ AND LA BABIDA. 


243 


love, here was an opportunity to win his 
good opinion and some of his good pesetas by 
a little timely assistance ; and if he were 
indeed the real Cuban, and the sergeant had 
gone off on a false scent, then he would de- 
serve largesse from the latter if he could keep 
the villain under surveillance until he was 
apprehended. 

Angelo returned, but at the hotel he asked 
for Winnie, not for Tib, and began his expla- 
nation. He was saying, I have no right to 
speak to her, for I have not yet found her 
father,” when the hearty voice of Mr. 
Smith exclaimed, “ But her father has found 
you, and he has discovered a few other things 
besides, so come right into the patio and make 
your explanations to Tib. Mother’s down 
there too, but you needn’t mind her, for I 
don’t know which of the two will be gladder 
to see you.” 


CHAPTER XII. 


GKANADA. 

And there the Alhambra still recalls 
Aladdin’s palace of delight: 

Allah il Allah ! through its halls 
Whispers the fountain as it falls; 

The Darro darts beneath its walls, 

The hills with snow are white. 

—Longfellow. 



sharp and bare 


AST convent and ruined 
fl fortress, past goatherds 
watching their flocks, past 
vineyards and stony wilder- 
nesses; dashing up the moun- 
tains through precipitous 
defiles and narrow gorges, 
along dizzy trestle work, 
through gloomy tunnel and 
over perilous torrent-gullied 
terraces, the train climbed 
to Granada. All around 
them the mountains rose 
amid olive groves, Ata- 

244 


ORANADA. 


245 


layas, or old watch-towers of the Moors, 
stood here and there like solitary vedettes 
who know not that their main army has sur- 
rendered, and who still keep watch and guard 
over a country no longer theirs. 

They entered the city at night. Th6 
station was a wild bedlam of laughing girls, 
clamoring guides, vociferous beggars, and 
shouting boys. They caught flashes of the 
town by lantern- and lamp-light as the dili- 
gence whirled them through the gateway 
against which Boabdil broke his spear ; past 
the Zacatin, or ancient Moorish silk bazaar ; 
and through the plaza where Mooiish and 
Christiaja knights tilted before the eyes of 
fair ladies who crowded the oveikanging 
balconies. It is a market now, and during 
the day is filled with huckster women seated 
upon the ground vending bursting pome- 
granates, luscious muscatels, golden oranges, 
and purple figs ; while lazy, handsome 
gitanos^ or Spanish gypsies, in theatrical cos- 
tumes, lounge beside gayly trapped donkeys, 
and flirt, lie, steal, and roll innumerable 
cigarettes with the same nonchalant grace. 

As they climbed the hill, through a gap in 
the arching trees they had glimpses of a 


246 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

Moslem moon, suspended like a bent scimiter 
over a dark mass of buildings which crowned 
the summit — it was the Alhambra. 

A few more explosive cracks of the driv- 
er’s murderous whiplash and they halted in 
the midst of the forest, where two hotels 
fronted each other. One was the Washing- 
ton Irving, a name which prepossesses all 
Americans in its favor ; but Father Tolo rec- 
ommended the other, the Hotel de los Siete 
Suelos, named from a tower of the Alhambra 
containing seven stories, at whose foot it 
stands. Hei*e the good priest left them, as he 
was to be entertained at a neighboring con- 
vent, but he promised to call upon them fre- 
quently during their stay. 

The next morning, as they breakfasted at a 
little table in the garden, they noticed an 
open door leading into this tower. This was 
the very door by which Boabdil left his cita- 
del to surrender it to Ferdinand and Isabella, 
and which in accordance with his request was 
walled up. Now that unfortunate prince 
might turn in his grave at the disrespect paid 
his memory, for the lower story of the tower 
is occupied as a lounging place by the hotel 
waiters. On the flat roof, fenced in by a low 


GRANADA. 


247 


parapet, a couple of cosset sheep were tethered 
which afforded the waiters unfailing amuse- 
ment in their hours of idleness. The girls 
could see them playing at bull-fight, using 
their long aprons for the cloaks Avith which 
the attendants of the ring taunt and enrage 
the animals that do not show sufficient 
spirit. 

It was from a gloomy vault underneath 
this tower that the Belludo, or headless horse 
of Irving’s legend of the Two Discreet Statues, 
issued at midnight for its goblin scamper 
through the streets of Granada. Winnie 
woke Tib at twelve the next night, assert- 
ing that she heard the sound of hoofs in the 
tower, and it was some time before the prac- 
tical Tib could persuade her that it was only 
one of the sheep rehearsing in his dreams the 
last bull-fight. 

The days that followed Avere a dream of 
delight. The girls took Washington Irving’s 
Tales of the Alhambra as their guide-book, 
and Angelo read aloud from them Avhile 
Winnie and Tib painted some brilliant vista ; 
and Avhen painting and reading Avere concluded 
they made a pilgrimage together to the spot 
which Irving had described, and were ahvays 


248 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

surprised to find tlie description as accurate 
as though just written. 

A number of these legends are laid in the 
different towers which rise at intervals from 
the walls that surround the Alhambra. The 
Tower of the Infantas is the one under whose 
windows the obliging renegade Hussein 
Baba set the three Christian captives to work, 
allowing them to touch the guitar at intervals 
for the amusement of the three daughters of 
the Sultan at the lattice above. The legend 
of the Three Beautiful Princesses is perhaps 
the most entertaining of Irving’s tales, while 
the tower is one of the most elegant of the 
lesser palaces connected with the Alhambra. 

The Torre de la Vela is the watch tower 
of the Alhambra. The prospect from its 
summit is one of inexpressible loveliness. 
When, on the 2d of January, 1492, the 
city was surrendered to the Spaniards, 
Ferdinand and Isabella waited without with 
the army until they saw their banner 
hoisted from the Torre de la Vela by Cardi- 
nal Mendoza. As the exiled and retreating 
Boabdil turned to cheer or chide his fol- 
lowers, says Bulwer, “ He saw from his own 
watch tower, with the sun shining full upon 


GRANADA. 


249 


its pure and dazzling surface, the silver cross 
of Spain.” Mr. Lockhart seems to have 
realized the vision in one of his Transla- 
tions of Spanish Ballads.” 

“ There was crying in Granada when the sun was going 
down, 

Some calling on the Trinity, some calling on Mahoun ; 

Here passed away the Koran, there in the cross was 
borne. 

And here was heard the Christian bell and there the 
Moorish horn ; 

Te Deum Laudamus was up the Alcala sung, 

Down from the Alhambra’s minarets were all the cres- 
cents flung ; 

The arms thereon of Aragon and Castile they display ; 

One King comes in in triumph, one weeping goes 
away.” 

The anniversary of the surrender, the 
Dia de la Toma, is the high festival of 
G-ranada. On that day,” says Irving, the 
great alarm bell on the Torre de la Vela 
sends forth its clanging peals from morn till 
night. Happy the damsel who can get a 
chance to ring that bell — it is a charm to 
insure a husband within the year ! ” 

The most palatial apartments of the 
Alhambra are built around two principal 
courts. That of the Alberca, or fishpond. 


250 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


was the royal audience chamber devoted to 
affairs of state, while the Court of Lions, 
with its connecting apartments, was reserved 
for the intimate family life of the Sultan. 

Tib made a careful study of the long tank 
or pool in the center of the Court of the 
Alberca, looking across it, through the en- 
trance arches, into the great Hall of the 
Ambassadors, which is the most impos- 
ing single apartment of the palace. It was 
the Sultan’s audience chamber, and was 
well calculated to impress his visitors with a 
sense of his magnificence. The lofty dome, 
seventy-five feet in height, is ceiled in cedar 
and painted with vermilion. Three sides of 
the tower contain each three alcoved win- 
dows, almost rooms in themselves, — the 
walls through which they are cut are 
so massive, — and each commands a view of 
rare beauty. 

Just outside the central window (which 
probably held the royal divan or throne), 
a slender balcony, the favorite resort of 
Irving, juts out in mid-air over the pre- 
cipitous w'alls, for the foot of the tower 
is far below in the valley. Passing through 
the colonnades at the right of the fishpond. 


GRANADA. 


251 


Winnie found her favorite haunt in the 
Court of Lions, for the summit of elegance 
and gorgeousness was reserved by the 
architect of the Alhambra for the harem. 
The court is named frona the grand fountain 
in the center resting upon the backs of 
twelve stone lions. These statues are said to 
have been carved by Christian captives, and 
there are some paintings in the Alhambra 
which are said to have the same origin, for it 
was against the religious law of the Moors to 
imitate any natural living forms, as the 
Mohammedan obeys with literal strictness 
the second commandment, Thou shalt not 
make unto thee any graven image,” etc. 

Winnie insisted that, even so, the most 
orthodox Mohammedan might have cut 
these lions, for they were so rude and un- 
realistic that they could not be regarded as 
“ likenesses of anything that is in the 
^ heaven above, or the earth beneath, or the 
waters under the earth.’ ” 

This court, with the rooms that surround 
it, has been called the gem of Arabian art in 
Spain. The walls are gilded, and an ara- 
besque pattern incised ; the plane beneath is 
painted vermilion or blue. Sometimes the 


252 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

stucco and marble ornamentation is creamy 
white, and the wrought openwork has the 
effect of the richest old lace. The ceilings 
are clustered domes of the richest colors. 

Their enjoyment of all this beauty was 
not mere dilettant luxuriousness, for Angelo 
had received word from his publisher that 
his work on the Palaces of Venice, which 
Tib had illustrated, was so successful that he 
would like to have him submit a similar 
work on Arabian Architecture in Spain, 
provided he could induce the same talented 
artist to furnish the illustrations. They 
began at once to plan this work, in which 
they soon became deeply absorbed. Winnie 
said they were the strangest pair of lovers 
she had ever seen, for when she thoughtfully 
left them alone in the charming little garden 
of Lindaraxa, and then could not resist the 
temptation of peering down upon them from 
the latticed windows of the gallery of the 
Hall of the Two Sisters, she found to her 
disgust that, instead of taking advantage of 
their opportunities for a little billing and 
cooing, they were having an earnest discus- 
sion as to the origin of the Arabian style of 
ornament. 


GRANADA. 


253 


I think with Owen Jones,” Angelo was 
saying, that the Moors derived it from 
fabrics — rugs, shawls, curtains; and that, 
having been accustomed to living in tents 
formed of stuffs woven in beautiful tints and 
patterns, ‘ in changing their wandering for a 
settled life they transferred the luxurious 
shawls and hangings of cashmere which had 
adorned their former dwellings to their new, 
changing the tent pole for a marble column 
and the silken tissue for gilded plaster.’ ” 
This is a plausible supposition, but an- 
other derivation seems equally probable,” said 
Tib. “ This period of art decoration followed 
immediately the literary eminence of the 
Caliphate of Cordova, when the labors of 
the artist were joined to those of the scribe, 
and the illuminated manuscripts of the 
Arabians rivaled the work of the scrip- 
toriums of Christendom,” 

“ ‘ Of Theodosius, who of old 

Wrote the Gospels in letters of gold.’ 


Parts of the MSS. which Don Juan showed 
us in the library of the Escorial, explaining 
that they had come from the great library of 


254 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

Abdurrhaman at Cordova, seem to me to be 
reproduced on the walls of the Alhambra.” 

‘‘It may be so,” said Angelo, “for the 
Arabians were a very scholarly people. 
An Oriental poet has written, it would 
almost seem, of this very palace : 

“ ‘ The fire is quenched on the dear hearthstone, 

But it burns again in the tulips brave ! ’ 

and of the hyacinth : 

“ ‘ All day the rain 

Bathed the dark hyacinths in vain ; 

The blood may pour from morn till night, 

Nor wash the pretty Indians white.’ ” 

“ Of all Oriental flowers,” said Tib, 
“hyacinths and tulips are to me the most 
suggestively Moorish, on account of their 
elegant shape, so like the outline of an 
Arabian arch; and do not these violets 
remind you of the sweet, dusky faces of the 
houris who once wandered among cypresses 
and citrons of this garden ? ” 

“It is of no use,” grumbled Winnie to 
herself, “ to obligingly keep out of their way ; 
their are quite unappreciative of my con- 
sideration,” and she called to them from her 


ORANADA. 


255 


post of observation to come and see among 
the intricate arabesques of the Hall of the 
Two Sisters some long lines of Cufic inscrip- 
tions running in banderoles about cornice 
and dado, which seemed to confirm Tib’s 
theory that the decorators of the Alhambra 
were scribes and illuminators and not weavers 
or embroiderers. 

On referring to a description of the palace 
written by its restorer, Senor Rafael Con- 
treras, they found that many of these were 
quotations from the Koran, strangely similar 
to texts in our own Scriptures. 

Everywhere they found the motto of 
Iben I’Ahmar, who began the Alhambra in 
the middle of the thirteenth century, “ God 
is the only conqueror.” It is said that when 
he returned from a victorious campaign his 
subjects saluted him as “The Conqueror,” and 
he replied in these words, which he ordered 
to be inscribed in every apartment of the 
palace. Other sentences which Tib found 
repeated were : “ God is our refuge in every 
trouble,” “ The glory of the empire belongs 
to God,” “Be not one of the negligent,” 
“ From the heart springs all the energy of 
soul and life.” On one of the walls of the 


256 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


Salon of tbe Two Sisters slie discovered, 
^‘Look attentively at my elegance; tkou 
wilt reap the benefit of a commentary on 
decoration,” and elsewliere the noble utter- 
ance, ‘^How miserable and contracted were 
our life were not our hope so spacious and 
extensive ! ” 

“ This reminds me,” said Angelo, “ of that 
other Oriental palace, with its noble inscrip- 
tion ; 

“ ‘ I read on the porch of a palace bold 
In a purple tablet letters cast — 

“ A house though a million winters old, 

A house of earth comes down at last. 

Then quarry thy stones from the crystal All, 

And build the dome that shall not fall.” ’ ” 

One day Angelo came up the long hill 
from the lower city with his face shining 
with boyish pleasure. “ I have found a 
treasure,” he exclaimed — “ a whole mine of 
treasures ! You must take a walk with me 
this afternoon and see for yourselves.” 

He had come back from the Zacatin, 
having made a remarkable acquaintance — a 
Moor of Tetuan who made an annual 
pilgrimage through Spain selling Oriental 
articles. His bazaar was a most seductive 


GRANADA. 


257 


place ; and, venerable spider that he was, he 
knew how to spread his web for flies with 
appreciative eyes and gold-lined pockets. 

He opened for them musky packages of 
gold and silver tissue from the looms of Fez, 
a bale of silk from Genoa, or a box of sequins 
and bangles. Winnie looked longingly at 
costumes and strips of marvelous embroidery, 
haiks of shimmering green and silver, and 
caftans of vivid rose, while Tib lingered over 
the brazen lamps and the damascened blade 
of a Moorish scimiter. 

The merchant grew confidential when he 
learned that they were Americans. He had 
been to America to the World’s Fair at 
Chicago and had held a little bazaar in the 
Midway Plaisance. I am not a true Moor,” 
he confessed, but a Hebrew who has lived 
long in that country. The Spanish love the 
Hebrews as little, even less, than they do the 
Moors, and so while I am in this country 
I wear the turban. I have no country ; I am 
a citizen of the world.” 

^‘Is it possible,” Winnie asked, ^Hhat in 
your travels you have been to Cuba ? ” 

A swift look of interrogation passed over 
the man’s face. 


258 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

It is possible,” he replied. ‘‘ 1 entered the 
United States at New Orleans. The ship had 
touched at several islands on the way. What 
more natural ? Cuba may have been one.” 

^^Then you did not stay long enough to 
make any acquaintances ? ” 

Ah, no ! A wretched country, and poor as 
poverty ; no rich people to buy my works of 
art, like the Americans. But I met some 
Cubans that were my fellow-passengers on 
the ship, flying from the country to the 
United S^tes. There was one noble young 
man in whom I was greatly interested.” 

Tib and Angelo were at a distance, deeply 
engrossed over some curios, and Winnie asked 
in a low voice, ‘‘Was it Hilario Lopez?” 

“ I will tell you in a moment,” the man 
replied ; and he stepped into a room at the 
back of the bazaar. There was a little delay, 
and a younger Moor in turban and volumi- 
nous draperies swept into the bazaar. “ Can 
I show you something for my employer ? ” he 
asked ; and Winnie, who would never have 
recognized him in his present disguise if he 
had not spoken, was startled by the voice, 
and asked, “ Is it possible — that you are 
here?” 


GRANADA. 


259 


“Yes,” lie replied, “and that means that 
I have failed, and must leave Spain. I 
hoped to meet a priest here, but he has not 
come to me, and I do not know how much 
longer I can remain in concealment.” 

“ It was Father Tolo,” Winnie replied, 
“ and he is in Granada. I will see him and 
tell him that you are w^aiting.” 

The young man bowed deeply, and stepped 
into the inner room, the proprietor coming 
forward to meet other customers who had 
entered. “ It will be as well,” he said to 
Winnie, “ for you not to come again ; the air 
is full of spies.” 

As the girls left the shop they came upon 
Mr. and Mrs. Smith walking with a whisk- 
ered Spanish officer. 

Mr. Smith was radiant with pleasure. “ I 
want to introduce you to my daughter,” he 
said to his companion. “ Tib, my dear, this 
is that very kind Mr. Sleeping-Car who was 
so good as to pick us up in Cartagena and 
bring us to Toledo.” 

“ I think you must have made a mistake in 
the name. Father,” Tib answered, smiling. 

“ Very likely,” the good man replied. 
“ Cardozer, is it ? Oh, certainly ! I thought I 


260 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

surely would remember that name by think- 
ing of a man who goes to sleep in the cars. 
Well, I wasn’t very far wrong, after all.” 

As Tib studied the man’s face it seemed to 
her strangely familiar. Where had she seen 
him before ? Winnie would have recognized 
the sergeant of Montjuich who had inter- 
rupted their sketching, but she had walked 
on with Angelo, for the sidewalk was narrow^ 
and the sergeant made no allusion to any 
previous meeting. 

Although she could not explain to herself 
the reason, Tib was unpleasantly impressed 
by the man and drew her father away. She 
was troubled when Mr. Smith said that he 
had invited him to call, and was relieved 
when several days passed without an accept- 
ance of the invitation. 

Even such a paradise as the Alhambra has 
been the scene of tragedy and death ; and as 
Winnie and Tib were seated one day in the 
beautiful Court of Myrtles, Mr. Smith, who 
was reading a batch of American papers, 
uttered an exclamation of dismay. 

What is it. Father?” Tib asked anxiously. 

^‘Was not your friend Stacey Fitz Sim- 
mons the son of the old Commodore ? ” 


QBANADA. 


261 


“Yes, Father.” 

“ Then, my dear, it is possible — it is feared 
— that he was on the Marne when the ex- 
plosion occurred.” 

“ Oh, Father, it cannot be ! Poor Milly ! 
That magnificent fellow ! No, it is too 
cruel.” 

“ Nothing is too cruel in war, my child. 
Every one of those two hundred and fifty 
men was somebody’s Stacey. Eead for 
yourself ” And the girls read : 

It is now certain that the son of Commodore Fitz 
Simmons, who was sent south on a special mission, 
was on the Maine on the night of the 15th. He has 
not been identified among the survivors. The 
utmost sympathy is felt for his family. 


CHAPTEE XIII. 


WITH THE GYPSIES. 


God sent the gypsies wandering, 

In punishment because they sheltered not 
Our Lady and Saint Joseph, and no doubt 
Stole the small ass they fled with into Egypt. 

—George Eliot. 


-'N V ^OT long after their arrival in 
Granada Winnie and Tib, es- 
corted by Angelo, had taken a 
vralk in the old 
Moorish quarter, 
where the archi- 
tecture has been 
little changed 
since the con- 
quest, and visited 
several old houses 
with interior courts, over hanging wooden 
balconies, and fine horse-shoe arches. This 
part of the city is now occupied by the 
poorer class, and is dilapidation contrasted 



WITH THE GYPSIES. 


263 


witli ancient grandeur. Facing the street 
a Moorish window of beautiful shape was 
blocked by a gaudy picture of the As- 
sumption of the Virgin, a lantern sway- 
ing in front doing double duty as an 
offering of devotion and an insufficient at- 
tempt at street-lighting. Winding in and out 
through the dirty streets, they came suddenly 
upon an open esplanade on the summit of a 
hill, and obtained a fine view of the Alhambra 
towers just across the river. They had been 
attended in their progress through this part 
of the city by an ever-increasing retinue of 
gypsy boys, who followed them not so much 
to beg as to scoff at their strange foreign dress 
and language. They were in the gypsy quar- 
ter, and were standing on the cliffs fronting 
the river, which are pierced with caverns of 
great antiquity. They zigzagged down the 
narrow footpaths which scaled the face of 
the cliffs like so many ladders, and were sur- 
prised and almost alarmed at the extent of 
this cave city — a settlement which numbers 
five thousand souls. The children scrambled 
down by shorter and steeper parts; more 
started up at every turn in their path shriek- 
ing, making faces, shaking their grimy fists. 


I 


264 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


and even throwing stones. As a missile 
whistled by them an old gypsy hag started 
up in their path, and with horrible contor- 
tions of countenance threw another stone 
upward, not at the girls, but at the advance 
guard of their persecutors, and the tribe of 
little brigands scattered as before the arm of 
the law. 

Thanking their preserver, they crept on 
downward, peeping curiously into the open 
mouths of the caverns — some of them black- 
smith shops lit up by lurid torches; others, 
still more diabolical, from whence proceeded 
unchristian odors and uncouth sounds accom- 
panying the branding and singeing of mules. 
Here a galliard gypsy in gorgeous costume of 
green velvet jacket and crimson sash, with 
black knee-breeches decked with silver but- 
tons, and embroidered leather spatterdashes, 
was brandishing an enormous pair of shears — 
a formidable weapon indeed, were he not 
peacefully inclined, but with which he was 
now artistically clipping a donkey, decorating 
the animal’s sides with a fancy arabesque cut 
in the hair, and giving a delicate finish to his 
tassel-pointed tail. Everywhere gypsies and 
donkeys, horses and mules — for they are con- 



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WITH THE GYPSIES. 


265 


fined to such brute companionship, and are 
only allowed to exercise the trades of jockeys, 
blacksmiths, clippers, horse dealers, horse 
doctors, and, it is to be feared, horse thieves as 
well. Tib remembered George Sorrow’s ex- 
citing accounts of adventures with this evil 
people when he was a colporteur in Spain : of 
the hatred they bear the Christian, of crimes 
and heathenish rites, of trickery and theft, of 
Gil Blas-like encounters and escapades; and 
his own wild rides through wilder regions 
with the gypsy Antonio, when selling the 
Bible made Borrow also an outlaw, grateful 
for the companionship and hospitality of the 
cutthroat and horse-thief. She thought of 
the blessing of the fortune-teller, accompanied 
always with a muttered curse in gypsy dialect, 
and of their skill as poisoners. 

A yet wilder gypsy with long black locks 
sat on the floor of the clipper’s cave, holding 
in his arms a black poodle which he had 
brought to be sheared. Winnie noticed the 
dog, and stepped in to pat it on the head, but 
Tib saw with alarm that the man regarded 
her with intense earnestness and grew more 
and more excited as he heard her speak. There 
was something uncanny, too, in the squinting 


266 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


leer of the gayly dressed clipper, and, lit by 
the red light of the blacksmith’s forge in the 
corner, the long clipping shears thrust care- 
lessly in his girdle had an unattractive look. 

Winnie, Winnie,” she called from with- 
out the cave, ‘‘hurry; let us leave this place 
while we can.” 

The man turned as she spoke, his face 
lighted by a good-humored smile, and Tib 
saw that it was their friend Nagy Pal, whom 
they had last seen at Toledo. He led them 
to his own cave, where his wife insisted that 
they should take a cup of chocolate with some 
odd cakes. The place was clean and. not un- 
picturesque; gayly striped blankets covered 
the couches, and a little cupboard filled with 
gaudily painted pottery stood against the wall. 

“ Where are your serpents ? ” Tib asked of 
Mrs. Nagy Pal, for she had an uncomfortable 
feeling that one of her pets might glide out 
from under the draperies. 

“We keep our animals in another cave,” 
the serpent charmer replied. “We held an 
exhibition in the city, and are going on soon 
to the land of the Moors.” 

“ I think we saw your van in the valley,” 
Winnie remarked. 


WITH THE GYPSIES. 


267 


No,” replied Nagy Pal, ^Hhat is anew 
traveling wagon which my sister had made, 
thinking to travel with us to the land of the 
Moors ; but she is ill and cannot go, and the 
wretched Busne, who made the van, will not 
take it back. We are trying to sell it for her, 
and then we will be gone. Would you like to 
see it ? You might like it to make excursions 
in about the country. One is very comfort- 
able in those vehicles, and one saves the 
expense of inns, for one can camp wherever 
night overtakes one.” 

He led them down the hill to where the 
van was standing. It was a little house, 
sweet and clean as new boards and fresh 
paint could make it, for it had never been 
used. There were muslin curtains in the 
little windows, a tiny cookstove, and lockers 
for supplies. 

I have always thought I would like to 
take a trip in one of these things,” Winnie 
said, but it would not be large enough for 
our party.” 

Nagy Pal showed them a tent strapped on 
the roof. “ That makes another house,” he 
said ; “ in the two you could lodge twelve 
people.” 


268 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

“ It is fascinating,” said Tib, but I fear 
that it is impracticable. What a handsome 
boy that is ! I wonder if he would pose for 
me.” 

“ Only too gladly, Senorita,” the boy 
replied ; I have posed for many of the 
artists. My uncle was Mariano, Fortuny’s 
favorite model.” 

Come to the Hotel de los Siete Suelos 
to-morrow, immediately after breakfast, and 
we will see what I can do from you.” 

Pepe, for this was the boy’s name, came 
frequently, and made himself useful in many 
ways, carrying the sketching outfit and run- 
ning errands when Antonio was not at hand. 
That worthy was often absent, seeming to 
have some mysterious business of his own to 
attend to. Winnie fancied that he might be 
courting one of the pretty Spanish girls in 
the neighborhood, a charge which he did not 
deny. 

One morning after their meeting with Hil- 
ario Lopez the girls sketched at the General- 
ife or summer palace of the Moors. It occu- 
pies an eminence overlooking the Alhambra, 
and was the Moors’ country villa, where 
there was always some soft, cool breeze when 


WITH THE GYPSIES. 


269 


the air lay baked and lifeless in Granada. 
The gardens of the Generalife are enchant- 
ment itself. An avenue leading to the 
palace is shaded by oleander trees, each 
shrub a bouquet of rockets, each blossom a 
rose in loveliness. Here too are fuchsias, 
climbing roses, and carnations, while the box 
grows tall and hedgelike and is cut in fan- 
tastic forms. Here are fragile arboi*s of cane 
where the Moors took their coffee, lulled by 
the sound of the fountains. The ornamenta- 
tion is simpler than that of the Alhambra. 
It was only a mountain resort, at first the 
property of the architect of the Alhambra, 
and there is no display of magnificence. 
The proportions, however, are characterized 
by extreme elegance and airy grace. The 
stream which runs through the gardens, filling 
the place with its sweet jargoning, is the 
infant Harro, which swells to a river when 
it weds the Xenil in the valley. Winnie 
was sure that here a musical composer might 
find in the gurgle, the plash, the ripple, and 
drip of the multitudinous waters inspiration 
for an Undine symphony. 

Pepe posed badly that morning, but he 
recited for their benefit some verses which 


270 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


had been taught him by some Sisters of 
Charity who held a sort of mission Sunday- 
school in an • old church near the gypsy 
quarter. One of these, a very simple Christ- 
mas carol, might be translated as follows : 

“ He was born in a hovel 
Of spider webs full : 

Beside him there grovel 
An ox and a mule; 

And King Melchior bade 
To honor the day, 

And that none might be sad 
The musicians should play. 

“ I’m a poor little gypsy 
From over the sea, 

I bring him a chicken 
That cries “ quir-i-qui 
For each of us, sure. 

Should oJBfer his part ; 

Be you ever so poor. 

You can give him your heart. 

“ Good-night, Father Joseph: 

Madonna so mild, 

We leave with regret 
Your adorable child. 

With the crown on his locks, 

The symbol of rule: 

Sleep in peace, Senor Ox ! 

God bless you. Sir Mule ! ” 

These naive verses reminded the girls of 
the childlike faith of Father Tolo. The 


WITH THE GYPSIES. 


271 


convent in which he was a visitor was not 
far distant, and the idea occurred to Tib to 
send Pepe with a note asking the good priest 
to meet them here. It was most fortunate 
that she sent this note by the trusty little 
Pepe instead of by the perfidious Antonio, 
for she unguardedly stated in it that the 
object of the interview was to consult with 
him about someone in whom they were 
mutually interested. As it happened, 
Antonio was at that moment conferring with 
Sergeant Cardoza -in reference to the same 
person, Hilario Lopez. The sergeant had 
followed his movements from the time that 
he had left Cordova; the detective had hoped to 
overtake Lopez in Madrid, but had arrived 
there only in time to learn that he had gone to 
Granada. That he was hiding here Cardoza 
was sure, but just where he had not yet dis- 
covered. He had kept Father Tolo under 
strict espionage, and the latter, discovering 
that he was watched, had not ventured to 
hold any communication with Hilario or to 
call upon his American friends. 

On this particular morning the astute 
Father Tolo, as he took his early walk out- 
side the convent, noticed that the man who 


2*72 WITOH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

had dogged his heels for several days was 
seated as usual on a bench under a clump of 
olive trees at a little distance from the con- 
vent gate. Apparently, however, he had not 
noticed Father Tolo’s approach, foi- he seemed 
deeply absorbed in a newspaper, and the 
priest slipped adroitly around a corner of the 
convent, and, peering back from his point of 
vantage, was sure that he had not been 
observed, for the sergeant presently folded 
up his paper and paced impatiently up and 
down, keeping the convent gate continually 
in view. Cat, the mouse is out of his hole,” 
said Father Tolo to himself, and then he 
observed something which struck him as 
peculiar. The detective was joined by 
Antonio, the courier of his American friends. 

Ah, serpents ! ” hissed Father Tolo, what 
would I give to hear your conversation ; 
but I dare not venture so near. Of one thing 
I am sure, it means no good to your em- 
ployers, base Antonio — and I will warn them 
to discharge you at once.” 

He picked his way down the rocky hill, 
avoiding the road which lay white and 
glistening in full view of the vedettes in the 
olive grove, and as he walked he noticed 


WITH THE GYPSIES. 


273 


Winnie’s gypsy model coming toward him 
from the Generalife. The boy presently 
approached him and asked if he was from the 
convent on the hill, as he had a letter for 
Father Bartolomeo of St. Juan de Kampoua, 
who was now^ a guest of the monastery. 

Father Tolo read the letter and looked at 
the boy attentively. The lady who wrote 
this calls you a ‘ trusty messenger.’ Do you 
deserve that praise?” 

Try me,” replied Pepe, straightening him- 
self proudly. 

Then slip around behind those two men 
and hear every word they say, and come 
to me at the Generalife and tell me what they 
are saying.” 

The boy stepped out and reconnoitered ; 
then returning, he said : One of them is 

Antonio. He kicked me the other day be- 
cause the Senorita gave me a present. I will 
listen ; they are doubtless a pair of thieves ! 
Trust me,” and with a grimace the little 
monkey scampered aw^ay. 

As Father Tolo approached the Generalife 
he was overtaken by Angelo, who was also 
reading a newspaper. ‘^My dear Father 
Tolo,” he exclaimed, “ have you heard the sad 


2V4 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

news ? The United States has declared war 
against Spain.” 

Father Tolo crossed himself. Then our 
friends must leave the country at once, for it 
will now be very unpleasant, perhaps unsafe, 
for Americans to remain in Spain.” 

Father Tolo quickened his pace, and held a 
long and earnest conversation with Tib and 
Winnie. The conclusion arrived at was that 
Father Tolo should leave Granada that night, 
waiting for Hilario Lopez at the next rail- 
way station, where the girls were to tell the 
Cuban to meet him. 

Pepe returned in a short time. He had 
listened well, and had heard the sergeant 
tell Antonio that war had been declared. 
“I shall arrest all these Americans,” he 
said, ‘‘as soon as I find the Cuban ; but 
it is most important that he should not slip 
through my fingers, and we must use them as 
decoys a little longer. From this time on do 
not leave them an instant out of your sight. 
You tell me that the suspect of Toledo is with 
them again. It may be that after all he is 
Hilario Lopez. There is one certain way to 
tell ; look at his left wrist. If a serpent is 
tattooed around it, let me know instantly.” 


WITH THE GYPSIES. 


2Y5 


“ There is no time to be lost,” said Father 
Tolo. Our ways part from this point. 
Personally we shall always be dear friends, 
but an evil chance has made our countries 
enemies. You must go to yours, Hilario to 
his. My lot is thrown in with mine. We 
would each despise the other if we were not 
loyal. This challenge from without will 
wipe away every petty quarrel within and 
unite all Spain. Yesterday we were Carlists, 
Royalists, Republicans ; to-day we are all 
Spaniards. God grant the bond hold after 
the greater danger is over ! Farewell, my be- 
loved friends. I know not whether we shall 
ever meet again. You are of a dilferent 
faith, but will you not I’eceive my blessing ? ” 

The girls knelt, while with lifted hand the 
kindly man repeated solemnly : 

“Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, 
dona nobis pacem.” (Lamb of God, who 
takest away the sins of the world, grant us 
peace.) 

The girls tied up their sketching materials 
and they returned to the hotel, where they 
talked over the situation with Mr. and Mrs. 
Smith. While they were holding their 
council the maid announced that a Moorish 


276 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

peddler liad brought some curios which he 
said the young ladies had purchased at his 
bazaar. 

What an impostor ! ” Winnie exclaimed ; 
but Tib replied promptly, “ He is quite right, 
show him up.” 

There was a soft footfall, a flutter of dra- 
peries, and Hilario Lopez entered in his 
Moorish disguise. 

^‘We are all friends,” said Tib, as she in- 
troduced him to the others and gave him 
Father Tolo’s message. 

^Ht is too late,” the Cuban replied in de- 
spair. “I was tracked from the bazaar to 
this hotel. I am discovered, and am confl- 
dent that I shall be arrested when I leave 
the door.” 

“ You must change your costume,” said 
Winnie quickly. “ I bought a complete 
gypsy costume the other day to use in a pic- 
ture ; step into Angelo’s room and put it on. 
Then go with Pepe, who is waiting in the 
courtyard below, to the gypsy caves, and 
hire a mule and ride to Father Tolo’s ren- 
dezvous.” 

A good idea for all of us to act upon,” 
said Angelo. “ The railroad station is prob- 


WITH THE GYPSIES. 


277 


ably watched; we are all suspected, and 
would be apprehended if we attempted to 
leave town. Why not hire or purchase that 
gypsy van which your friend Nagy Pal 
wishes to dispose of, and quietly slip off to 
Gibraltar by way of Honda ? ” 

All agreed that this was an excellent plan 
to be carried out immediately. They threw 
a few necessaries into handbags, and were 
about to descend and settle with the land- 
lord, when there was a nervous tap upon the 
door, and Pepe entered, his eyes protruding 
with excitement. 

They are there,” he said, just outside 
the front door, waiting for you to come down 
to sieze you.” 

Who are there ? ” Angelo asked. 

“ The hogs that I heard talking under the 
olive trees,” said the boy impolitely, and with 
the aguazil of this town. Ah ! well I know 
him, for he took my father to the cdrcel for 
the mere trifle of a glandered horse.” 

Hilario Lopez glided to the window and 
peered through a crevice in the shutters. 
“ It is true,” he said ; they are in force — we 
are trapped.” 

“ Not at all,” replied Pepe ; when the 


278 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

front door is guarded flee out of the back 
door.” 

But there is no door in the rear,” replied 
Tib ; this hotel backs against the Tower of 
the Seven Stories, one of the outposts of the 
Alhambra.” 

“Well I know that,” said Pepe. “Have 
I not entered by the Torre de los Siete 
Suelos many times ? It opens into the hotel 
buttery, which is well stocked with good 
things ; but from one of the stories there is 
an underground passage into the Alhambra. 
Every gypsy knows it. Come, I will show 
it to you.” 

He led them along an upper balcony at 
the side of the court into the tower, and, 
clearing away some bundles of straw, showed 
them a door which yielded to his shoulder. 

“ I told you so,” said Pepe, dancing and 
grimacing in his glee. 

“ ‘ I stole a plump and bonny fowl, 

But, ere I well had dined, 

The master came with scowl and growl 
And me would captive bind. 

My hat and mantle off I threw, 

And scoured across the lea ; 

Then cried the fiend with loud halloo, 

“ Where does the gypsy fiee? ” 


WITH THE GYPSIES. 


219 


Angelo struck a match and they saw a 
narrow passage. 

It is light further on,” said Pepe ; “ you 
will not need a lantern, and there is no fear of 
going wrong, for there is only one way to go.” 

“ I think you can trust him,” said Angelo 
to Tib. I will join you a little later at 
Nag}^ Pal’s, but I think I would better go 
back now and allay any suspicions that 
might arise if we all fled at once. • I will pay 
our bills and arrange for the baggage to be 
sent on, and will folloAv as soon as possible. 
Do not wait for me after eight o’clock. I 
will try to be with you just after nightfall, 
but if I do not appear by moonrise, set out 
on your journey without me. I will join 
you at Honda, or, failing that, at Gibraltar.” 

He kissed Tib tenderly. “ God keep you ! ” 
she said, and followed the others, who had 
gone on, thinking that he was wdth them. 
He closed the door carefully, covering it wdth 
the straw, and returned to the little sitting- 
room which they had just left to And 
Antonio examining the Moorish robes which 
Hilario had worn and had thrown upon a 
chair. 

What are you doing here ? ” he asked 


280 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


sternly. Leave the room instantly. Keep 
your place better, or you will be dis- 
charged.” 

The Senor may as well be more cour- 
teous,” Antonio replied impudently ; “ there 
are others at the door who have the right to 
enter if I have not.” 

Tell them to come in,” Angelo replied, , 
opening Tib’s water-color box and mixing a 
little paint with assumed nonchalance. The 
instant that Antonio left the room he seized 
a brush and worked feverishly, painting a 
serpent about Ms own wrist. He had hardly 
finished it when Sergeant Cardoza and his 
companions entered the room. Angelo rose 
and greeted them politely, motioning them 
to chairs with a slightly interrogative expres- 
sion. His object was to gain time, and this 
the sergeant apparently divined, for he 
brusquely began his questions : 

“ I must waive ceremony, Senor, for I am 
in pursuit of a fugitive from justice. Where 
is the man who entered this house a few 
moments ago dressed in this costume ? ” 

“He left, Senor, almost immediately, hav- 
ing brought some curios that had been pur- 
chased at his bazaar ” 


WITH THE GYPSIES. 


281 


“ But why did he leave his costume ? ” 

“ Because the young ladies who purchased 
his goods are artists, and could use it in 
their pictures.” 

Pardon me, Senor, if I do not believe 
you. That young man has not left the 
house. We have kept a watch on the door 
ever since he entered, and there is no exit in 
the rear.” 

^‘If he has not left the house he is still in 
it. Antonio, call the landlord and explain 
that these gentlemen have the right of 
search.” 

^^No explanation is necessary. The land- 
lord is aware of our permission. We have a 
guard at the door, and Antonio will remain 
in this room with you until I return.” 

They clattered out of the room and thor. 
oughly examined every apartment in the 
house, even penetrating into the tower in 
the rear, but not discovering the door to the 
secret passage. The sergeant returned 
baffled and angry. Where are the Ameri- 
cans ? ” he asked. 

They went to the Generalife this morn- 
ing with the intention of spending the day 
there sketching.” 


282 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

That is true,” said Antonio ; “ they took 
their luncheons : they will not return until 
night.” 

Who are you ? ” asked the sergeant. 

You are not from the United States. Give 
an account of yourself.” 

I am an American, if not from the States, 
and I decline to answer your questions any 
further.” 

You are an American from Cuba, per- 
haps. You are possibly the very man who 
just entered this house in that Oriental 
disguise.” 

Angelo shrugged his shoulders. That is 
absurd ! I have been living here openly ; I 
have tiayeled without concealment through 
Spain.” 

You have been watched ; your manner 
of life was suspicious at Toledo ; there 
have been mysterious absences and jour- 
neys just at the time when Lopez’ where- 
abouts were known, and, on the contrary, 
you have only been en evidence when he 
could not be found. Show me your left 
wrist.” 

Angelo lifted his hand in a hesitating way, 
only exposing the lower part, but the ser- 


WITH THE GYPSIES. 


283 


geant rudely stripped it back, displaying the 
serpent. 

Antonio’s jaw fell with surprise. “ Fool ! ” 
said the sergeant to him ; and you never 
discovered that ! Senor Hilario Lopez, I 
have the honor to place you under arrest ! ” 


CHAPTER XIV. 


GIBEALTAE AND TANGIEE. 


England, we love thee better than we know, 

And this I learned, when, after wanderings long 
’Mid people of another stock and tongue, 

I heard again thy martial music blow. 

—Trench. 


IB and lier friends waited in the 
gypsy cave until the 
time set by Angelo to 
join them had passed ; 
and the gypsies hav- 
ing had time to com- 
plete their brief ar- 
rangements, they set 
out for Ronda in the 
following order : 

Nagy Pal and his 
wife drove first, 
seated in front of their menagerie van, their 
camp equipage strapped on the roof. Then 
followed the new van containing the American 



OIBRALTAR AND TANGIER. 285 

party, Mr. Smith wearing a long cloak and 
sombrero, holding the reins and looking, as 
Winnie told him, for all the world like a 
bandit and smuggler of the most disreputable 
class. Mrs. Smith and the girls, though their 
faces were partly hidden by bright cotton 
handkerchiefs used instead of sunbonnets, 
during the greater part of the trip remained 
prudently inside the van. Hilario Lopez bade 
them a grateful farewell and, mounted on a 
borrowed mule, with Pepe trudging at his side 
to bring it back, set out in another direction 
to meet Father Tolo. He was still in the 
galliard gypsy costume depicted at the head 
of Chapter XII., and no one would have 
recognized him, had a watch been kept. 
But the night was overcast, and no one saw 
the gypsies take to the road. Indeed, so con- 
fident and triumphant was Sergeant Cardoza 
that he had made a successful seizure, that the 
Americans sank to minor importance, and he 
devoted himself to seeing that the prison in 
which Angelo was confined was securely 
guarded, and simply enjoined upon the inn- 
keeper not to allow his guests to leave the 
hotel until the sergeant’s return, when he 
would search and question them. Antonio 


286 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

was left to watch them, and that worthy 
passed a very uncomfortable night waiting 
for their return. He consoled himself by 
making an inspection of their baggage pre- 
vious to that of the detective, and by confis- 
cating such articles as he fancied for his own 
private use, although they could hardly have 
been regarded as contraband of war. 

On bidding Tib good-by Hilario Lopez 
looked very grave. 

“ I fear for the safety of your friend, the 
Seiior Zanelli,” he said ; but Father Tolo will 
keep me informed, and if we learn that he is 
in trouble for my sake, I will go to him and 
give myself up.” 

‘‘ You need have no fears,” Winnie replied 
encouragingly. I happen to know that 
Angelo has no desire to get himself killed, 
but an exceedingly good reason for keeping 
out of harm’s way. He promised to join us 
in Honda or Gibraltar, and I never knew him 
to fail to keep a promise.’’ 

What a wierd, strange ride it was ! They 
followed the river Xenil all that night and 
just at daybreak saw Loja, the outpost town 
called the Key of Granada, in the distance, 
and carefully avoiding it climbed up into the 


GIBRALTAR AND TANGIER. 287 

wild Sierra Nevada. The road was rough 
and little frequented, and they stopped for 
breakfast on a rocky spur giving a grand 
view of all the country to the north. They 
made their colfee at a campfire, and were 
quite comfortable, though the mountain air 
was chill as well as bracing. After a short 
rest they toiled on until nearly noon^ when, in 
the shadow of a ruined Moorish watch-tower, 
they unharnessed their horses and settled 
themselves for their siesta. They tried to 
imagine the feelings of Boabdil and his van- 
quished army as they retreated from Granada 
over this very route, of the Prince’s tears on 
seeing the banner of Santiago floating from 
the towers of the Alhambra, and of the 
reproach of his proud mother — Thou dost 
well to weep like a woman for that which 
thou hast not defended like a man ! ’• 

Boabdil was allowed to remain in a little 
retreat in the Alpujarras, but he wearied of 
this exile, and crossing into Africa settled in 
Fez, where Moors are found to-day who claim 
that they are descended from him and who 
possess keys and maps to possessions in 
Granada which they threaten some day to 
return and claim. 


288 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

Through the most picturesque mountain 
scenery the two gypsy vans pursued their 
way, arriving on the third day at Ronda, the 
most pictorial mountain city of Spain. It is 
situated on both sides of a wildly romantic 
gorge spanned by a wonderful stone-arched 
bridge three hundred feet above the torrent. 
The houses on both sides of the chasm were 
chalky white ; those in the Moorish town, 
where they stopped, were very old, and only 
one story in height, with few windows, and 
those were grated. 

Nagy Pal gave an exhibition of his dogs 
and his wife of her serpents, but the Ameri- 
cans showed themselves little in the town, 
taking long walks to the old mills, caves, and 
Moorish baths in the neigliborhood. They 
remained several days at Ronda, but had no 
news from Angelo, and* journeyed on when 
Nagy Pal was ready toward Gibraltar, a 
two-days’ trip from Ronda. The first part of 
the way the road scrambled up and down 
mountains and along precipices. It has been 
called a road made by the Evil One in a hang- 
ing Garden of Eden. They preferred to walk 
the greater part of the journey, and they met 
few travelers. Once a group of carabineroSy 


GIBRALTAR AND TANGIER. 289 

or police, stepped out from behind a rock and 
ordered them to halt, and their hearts were in 
their mouths, for they feared that they were 
to be arrested, but the men were merely look- 
ing for smugglers, and convinced by inspection 
that they had nothing contraband in their 
wagons, they were allowed to continue their 
journey. They camped at Guacin for the 
night and descended the last incline to the 
pretty river Guadiaro ; and from this point 
the scenery changed, and they drove through 
pleasant groves of cork trees and chestnuts 
and over good level roads into San Eoque, the 
summer residence of the families of the offi- 
cers in garrison at Gibraltar. How delight- 
ful it was to see blond-headed English babies 
propelled in English perambulators by trim 
English maids, with adoring Tommy Atkinses 
in attendance, and English ladies and gentle- 
men on horseback riding in and out of the 
pretty villa gates. They made as careful 
toilets as they could within their traveling 
carriage, and, stopping at the country house of 
the American Consul, explained the situation 
to him and were taken under his protection. 
Though still on Spanish soil they felt when 
they passed under the shield bearing the 


290 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

Stars and Stripes that they were safe at home. 
Here too they dismissed Nagy Pal, paying 
him well for the use of his traveling wagon. 
Their good friend was sorry to part with 
them ; he intended to make a short trip in 
Morocco, and hoped to see them again there. 
Our travelers secured an Irish jaunting car 
to take them inside the fortifications, and 
were more and more impressed as they drove 
onward with the immense strength of the 
fortress and the shrewdness of England in 
securing this important position. It is, as 
Burke said, ^‘a post of power, a post of 
superiority, of connection, of commerce ; one 
which makes England valuable to her friends 
and dreadful to her enemies.” 

The resemblance of the grand outlines of 
The Kock ” to the figure of a lion has often 
been remarked. But the English life, though 
predominant, is not the only life of the place. 

^^The Kock of Gibraltar impresses me,” 
said Winnie, as if it had crumbled away 
from old England, and drifted to the Medi- 
terranean to become the meeting place of 
every nation of the Old World.” 

“ And I am reminded of the Day of Pente- 
cost,” added Tib, ^^for we hear every man 


GIBRALTAR AND TANGIER. 291 

speak in his own tongue, ‘ Parthians and 
Medes and Elamites, and the dwellers in 
Mesopotamia and in Judea and Cappadocia, 
in Pontus and Asia, in Egypt, Cretes and 
Arabians and strangers of Rome, Jews and 
proselytes.’ ” 

The Biblical catalogue was not far wrong, 
for in the afternoon, as they sat on the hotel 
balcony watching the motley groups which 
loitered through the narrow street, they 
noted first a knot of Spanish ladies with veils 
and fans, then a noble-looking Moor fol- 
lowed by a negro servant, and next a band 
of Highland bagpipers, playing gayly ‘‘The 
Campbells Are Coming,” tramped sturdily by 
in plaid and kilt with naked knees. After 
that they counted a gypsy, two Jew^s, and 
four English soldiers in uniforms of scarlet 
and gold, one humming carelessly — what but 
“ Annie Laurie ” ! 

The Moors were robed in snowy, fluttering 
garments, and presented a dignified appear- 
ance. The Jews, on the contrary, in dressing- 
gowns and cotton drawers, with heel-trodden 
slippers falling from their stockingless feet, 
were shabby and repulsive. Winnie dubbed 
their costume “a steamer disaster dress,” and 


292 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

asserted that they seemed to her to have 
rushed suddenly and unclothed upon deck 
at the announcement of fire or some other 
urgent peril. 

They were disappointed to find no word 
awaiting them from Angelo, and they deter- 
mined to make the waiting time seem shorter 
by making a little excursion of two or three 
days across the straits into Morocco. 

They found Tangier a domed and mina- 
retted Oriental city built upon the side of a 
hill, down which its white-walled terraces 
stepped to the sea. In its narrow streets 
they were jostled by Moors, negroes, and the 
panniers of donkeys. Up a detestable cobble- 
paved alley, which proved to be the principal 
street of the city, they plodded, now catching 
a glimpse of the campanile of the Djmah, 
dazzling in its sheath of malachite-tinted tiles, 
and now peering into the mysterious interior 
of a mosque. Here they ran the gantlet of 
the bazaars. Rugs from Tunis and Bagdad, 
long Kabyle rifles, saddles and trappings of 
the gayest colors, highly colored glazed pot- 
tery, pipes and jewelry; brass salvers of every 
size, reflecting the sunlight like polished 
shields, and incised with magical patterns; 


GIBRALTAR AND TANGIER. 


293 


bangles and amulets, perfumes, fruits, silver- 
shot gauzes, and scimiters with carved blades 
and jeweled handles — all were displayed in 
tempting profusion. Their rooms at the 
hotel gave a prospect of white-terraced roofs, 
and away to the east the tawny range of sand- 
hills which end in the peak of Tetuan, where 
Fortuny painted his great picture of the Bat- 
tle of Wad Bas, the first painting which they 
had looked upon in Spain. 

They looked forward to their first sup- 
per with a little apprehension, for they 
had heard much of the hoi'rible messes 
of the Moors, of meats stewed in per- 
fumes, fish served with pomatum, of ra- 
gouts flavored with shaving soap and 
frangipani. But the Moorish menu served 
them was not unpalatable, and they pro- 
nounced partridges stuffed with olives, chest- 
nuts, and raisins ; fritters with a filling re- 
sembling mince pie, and sponge cakes soaked 
in milk and sprinkled with grated almonds 
sufi[iciently endurable. The hand washing 
with orange-flower water after every course 
was an innovation certainly, but not a dis- 
agreeable one, while the dessert of candied 
sweetmeats, melons, and large almond-shaped 


294 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 

white grapes was supplemented with genuine 
Arabian coffee and tea prepared in the Moor- 
ish style. The Soudanese waiter first placed 
a quantity of green tea in a tiny kettle, then 
filled it with lumps of loaf sugar, pouring on 
as much boiling water as the sugar would 
absorb ; then he added a dust of verbena, and 
served the syrup in tiny tumblers of Bohe- 
mian glass. 

This dinner only needs one thing to make 
it perfect,” said Mrs. Smith. 

I know what,” exclaimed her husband — 
‘‘serafina celestials.” 

Mrs. Smith nodded, and then the story of 
Angelo’s devotion and Mr. Smith’s change of 
heart as exemplified by custards was told, 
and Mr. Smith acknowledged himself to have 
been an unconscious tyrant. Mr. Smith went 
out with Winnie, who wished to see some- 
thing of the life of the city in the evening, 
and Tib crept close to her mother. 

“ I was not thinking of custards when I 
spoke just now,” said the little woman. 

I know, I know,” replied her daughter ; 
you meant Angelo. 1 am afraid he is in 
danger, though father says he does not see 
how that can be when he has his passport to 


GIBRALTAR AND TANGIER. 295 

prove that he is an Italian. But I have been 
thinking all day of Begnault, who painted here 
so gloriously, and who died for his country 
in his early manhood, just happily betrothed, 
and with France so proud of him, with a 
future of fame and happiness before him. I 
have been thinking of Milly too, and wonder- 
ing why I should be so happy while she is 
called upon to give up Stacey for his coun- 
try,” and Tib bowed her head upon her 
mother’s shoulder and broke down utterly. 

“ Leave all the future to your Heavenly 
Father,” said the little woman, and do not 
try to bear burdens until they are laid upon 
you — simply trust him where you cannot see 
the way. Perhaps you will see that he has 
some other way for you to serve him when 
the clouds lift.” 

And the clouds did lift on their return to 
Gibraltar, for there on the pier waiting to 
receive them was Angelo. 

I have had a very narrow escape,” he 
said, as he told them of the experiences fol- 
lowing his arrest. Ho you know that I 
owe my life to your Spanish friend, Hon 
Juan Perez de Silva ? ” 

When he heard that Hilario Lopez was 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


apprehended, he immediately offered his tes- 
timony in identifying the prisoner, as he was 
one of the very few in Spain who had seen 
Lopez lately. When I was brought into his 
presence I had my eyes fixed on his face, and 
I noticed that he stared straight at my collar 
and never looked at my face at all, and so 
took his oath that he saw no resemblance 
whatever between the accused and Hilario 
Lopez. I showed my wrist, from which I had 
washed the India-ink imitation of tattooing, 
and it was assumed that Sergeant Cardoza 
had lied, and my Italian passport did the 
rest, but it was really Don Juan’s testimony 
that cleared me. And now comes the singu- 
lar part of it. After I was acquitted he did 
look at me, and a more astonished man I 
never saw in all my life. 

He came to me afterward, and said, ^ So 
you are really not Hilario Lopez, after all ? ’ 
“ Wou have just sworn to that statement, 
my dear Senor,’ I replied; and then I told 
him what I had known of the Cuban, and 
how it happened that I had been arrested in 
his place, and it came out that the dear old 
Don had actually determined to save Lopez’ 
life and had crept around actual perjury by 


GIBBALTAR AND TANGIER. 297 

not looking at my face when he said he saw 
no resemblance. He was inclined to think at 
first that Nuestra Senora de la Merced, who 
takes captives under her special care, had 
performed a miracle and changed Hilario 
Lopez into another man in order to preserve 
him from perjury. He helped me still fur- 
ther in getting me away, and told me to tell 
Winnie that he had done this entirely because 
she, not Van, had taken such an interest in 
this man, and he wanted her to know that he 
had done it for her sake.” 

‘‘And to think,” said Winnie, “that we 
must call such men as Don Juan and Father 
Tolo our enemies ! ” 

“ I have just read,” said Tib, “ this very 
noble prayer before battle by Kudyard Kip- 
ling, written, it would seem, especially for 
us at this time : 

“ ‘ HYMN BEFOEE ACTION. 

“ ‘ The earth is full of anger, 

The seas are dark with wrath; 

The nations in their harness 
Go up against our path ; 

Ere yet we loose the legions, 

Ere yet we draw the blade, 

Jehovah of the Thunders, 

Lord, God of Battles, aid I 


298 WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 

“ ‘ For those who kneel beside us, 

At altars not Thine own, 

Who lack the lights that guide us, 

Lord, let their faith atone. 

If wrong we did to call them. 

By honor bound they came; 

Let not Thy wrath befall them, 

But deal to us the blame.” 

The day held another great cause for 
rejoicing. Winnie received a letter from 
Van, which they had agreed should be sent 
to Gibraltar, as they had decided that this 
would be their last stop in Spain. 

Van wrote from Havana, where he had 
joined the Red Cross. ^‘You will be sur- 
prised,” he said, ^Go hear that one of my first 
patients was Stacey Fitz Simmons. He had 
come to Cuba on a peaceful scientific errand, 
and was studying the harbor defenses. He 
had read old documents in the Spanish 
archives of a subterranean passage about two 
miles long and eight feet wide between the 
Navy Yard and Castillo del Principe. On 
approaching General Blanco in regard to it 
the general assured him that no such pas- 
sages were known to the present authorities 
or to anyone who had been in power for 
years past. He was, however, given permis- 


GIBRALTAR AND TANGIER. 299 

sion to explore, and on the afternoon of the 
15th he discovered a door in a lower case- 
mate of the castle which had been built up 
with huge stones and was covered with rub- 
bish. He engaged a mason to open this for 
him, and, finding that there was some sort of 
a subterranean gallery, descended into it with 
a lantern late that evening. That night the 
ship was blown up, and in the excitement 
that followed the incident of Stacey’s ex- 
plorations was forgotten and might never 
have occurred to anyone had not the mason 
become anxious for his pay and besieged 
the officers at the fort to know what had 
become of the young engineer. At first 
it was supposed that he had gone on board 
the Maine and had perished, but the guards 
at the entrance of the castle declaring that he 
had not left it that afternoon, the under- 
ground gallery was searched, and he was 
found unconscious, half buried by earth 
which had fallen from the roof with the 
shock of the explosion. He was taken to 
the house of a Spaniard in the vicinity of the 
fort and very kindly nursed and cared for. 
As he did not belong to the crew of the 
Maine he was not reported among the sur- 


300 


WITOH WINNIE IN SPAIN. 


vivors ; and for a long time he was too ill to 
communicate with his family. He did not 
mend rapidly, and when able to express his 
own desires requested to be removed to the 
hospital of the Red Cross, where I found 
him; and had the pleasure of telegraphing 
the joyful news of his discovery and his 
convalescence to his parents and to Milly 
Roseveldt.” 

It is all too good to be true,” said Tib. 

I can trust now for the future, since through 
such dangers we are all still spared to one 
another.” 

Angelo now begged Tib to return to 
Venice, marry him in the Palazzo Zanelli, 
and live there with her father and mother 
until the war between the United States and 
Spain was over. 

“I don’t like the plan,” said Mr. Smith, 
an American myself, and so is mother, 
and we are not going to desert our country, 
now it’s in trouble, to live in any palaces. 
But Tib shall do as she likes, and if she feels 
like saying ‘Thy people shall be m}^ people,’ 
why, I have nothing to say except that I 
never did believe in these foreign marriages.” 
Tib looked from her father to her lover 


GIBRALTAR AND TANGIER. 301 

with trouble in her eyes. Angelo saw it and 
whispered, Would you rather it were I who 
said it ? ” 

^^Yes, Angelo, while my country needs 
us.” 

^^Then, dear, ^Thy people -shall be my 
people,’ and I will go with you, and we will 
all take the Ked Cross together. It was no 
nobler one that my ancestor took under the 
old Doge Enrico Dandolo,in the Cathedral of 
St. Mark’s, when he followed his leader to 
that other crusade. You will change now 
that little silver cross which you and Winnie 
and Milly have worn as King’s Daughters for 
the red one, will you not ? ” 

^‘No,” said Winnie, ^^we will never cease 
to be King’s Daughters, or give up the silver 
cross ; but we will superimpose the red 
cross upon it. Surely Mrs. Utter’s beautiful 
description of our order was never more exact 
than now, that we take this new commis- 
sion, this new work : 

“THE KING’S DAUGHTER. 

“ She wears no jewel upon hand or brow, 

No badge by which she may be known of men; 

But though she walks in plain attire now 


WITCH WINNIE IN SPAIN 


She is the daughter of the King; and when 
Her Father calls her at his throne to wait 
She shall be clothed as doth befit her state. 

Her Father sent her in his land to dwell, 

Giving to her a work that must be done; 

And since the King loves all his people well, 
Therefore she, too, cares for them every one. 
Thus, when she stoops to lift from want and sin, 
The brighter shines her royalty therein. 

She walks erect through dangers manifold. 

While many sink and faint on either hand; 

She dreads not summer’s heat, nor winter’s cold. 
For both are subject to the King’s command. 

She need not be afraid of anything. 

Because she is a daughter of the King. 

Even when the angel comes that men call Death, 
And name with terror, it appalls not her; 

She turns to look at him with quickened breath. 
Thinking ‘ It is the royal messenger.’ 

Her heart rejoices that her Father calls 
Her back to live within his palace walls. 

For though the land she dwells in is most fair. 

Set round with streams like picture in its frame, 
Yet often in her heart deep longings are 
For that imperial palace whence she came, 

Not perfect quite seems any earthly thing. 

Because she is a daughter of the King.” 















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